Here at Eatlocal, we like to know where our produce originates from. For example, some of our brown onions come from the sunny fields of Swannanoa near Rangiora, right in the heart of North Canterbury.
Onions like a lot of heat and water when they are growing and they need it hot and dry once they mature so they can dry down and keep for the many months ahead.
Being a slow crop, onions are sown in late winter and harvested in the following autumn.
Once matured, they are lifted out of the soil to dry in the sun. The dry hot autumn climate in Canterbury is ideally suited for this, allowing the onions to dry naturally, unlike many regions that have to artificially dry theirs.