Dehydrated Onion

My dad said he would come down to Atlanta to help me build my chicken coop! Hooray!

When I was growing up in Southwestern Michigan, my dad could fix anything. A Veterinarian by day, I remember helping him on the weekends, paint, refinish floors and wallpaper the rental homes we owned. I have an especially vivid memory of Daddy installing a ceiling fan in he and mom’s bedroom and neglecting to turn off the “juice” to the room…I probably shouldn’t go in to too much more detail in case he reads this.

Anyway, Daddy can build anything. So, I’m very excited that he has agreed to help me with my chicken coop. I’ve decided to buy a kit…already pre cut wood, all the right kinds and numbers of screws and nails etc. We will put it together and paint it and voila`!

I think I got my gardening genes from my dad. (Mom kills all plants…)

When we were growing up Daddy had a really large vegetable garden outside our back fence. I used to help him. One night for dinner we were having broccoli from the garden. (I was an unusual kid and loved broccoli. I still do! ) My brother and sister and I were all served our plates with dinner on them. My brother (a VERY picky eater) hated onions as a kid. There were little white flecks on the broccoli that looked a lot like those dehydrated onions everyone used in the 70’s. Matt, my brother, started pitching a fit about the onion on the broccoli. Daddy told him to stop whining and pick them off. The problem is they didn’t really look like dehydrated onions to me, so I asked daddy what they were. I guess daddy was in a hurry with the broccoli that day because he didn’t pick off the little worms that were hanging out on it before he steamed it. It was a while before I ate broccoli without thinking about the “dehydrated onion” story.

I do wash all the produce that I harvest from my garden. I think there are plenty of great stories my kids will tell their future spouses and children about me without having a “mom fed us dead bugs for dinner” story.