The Family Table: Keep a Running Jar of Onions

When I was a little girl and heard the phrase "running jar of onions" I was pretty sure I had no idea what it meant, it was just something the older folks said. In my imagination of course I pictured a jar of onions running away from someone chasing it. 😂  

In thinking about it now, it's probably what inspired me later in life to turn fruits and vegetables into cartoons.

I grew up in the 1960's with grand parents in my daily life that used language that many of us don't use today.  Their language developed out of how they did things in their day. Long before the days of rushing off to the grocery store for this or that, and even into the days of the Great Depression when you had to learn to "make do", if you hadn't already been making do.

As it turns out, keeping a running jar of onions means exactly what it sounds like.  It means saving every little scrap of onion, green onion tops, onion skins & onion ends, and letting them dry out either naturally, in a warm oven or with a dehydrator. Doing this every time you use fresh onions & sticking the odds & ends pieces into a jar until it's full.  Once it's full, they're ground down to powder either using a mortar and pestle or any type of modern appliance like a little Bullet blender. 

Voila - fresh, home dried onion powder to be used in all sorts of recipes to add a savory, deep level of umami flavor to any dish without having access to fresh onions. I use one single jar for all onion scraps (red, yellow, sweet, etc.) so my onion powder has an amazing flavor that store bought onion powder can't even come close to. I discovered the joy of making my own seasoning blends several years ago and onion powder is a staple ingredient so I make my own quite often. I've even been known to buy extra onions at the local market, just to make my own onion powder. 

It's not lost on me that if I were writing this 100 years ago in 1925, most folks would think I'd lost my marbles since this was a completely normal, every day thing many wives and mothers and grandmothers were doing already. It would be along the same lines as writing a step by step article telling folks how to brush their hair, or tie their shoes.  

Over the years society has traded "making do" with convenience and simple things like drying your own veggies and herbs became a thing of the past for most people.   

I have a lot of little things like this I do these days that started out as a simple challenge for me to try, to see if I could actually make do & save on the grocery budget the way they used to.  Some of those things became so enjoyable to me that they're just now a part of the way my kitchen is run. 

Thanks for stopping by. I sure hope this has blessed you in some way. 😊 Please feel welcome to leave a comment or question.