You open your CSA bag to find perfect white globes attached to bright green stalks. What are these? Leeks? Melons? An exotic fruit?
Those gems are fresh onions. Fresh onions are onions that have not been cured, aka, they are picked right out of the ground and given to you immediately.
When you go to the grocery store to buy onions, you almost always are buying onions with a tannish brown or red/purple outer skin that's papery. When you get home and are ready to cook, part of preparing the onion is peeling off that protective skin. These are cured onions, onions that have been picked, cleaned, and stored for several months. The curing process preserves onions and allows the outer skin to dry, protecting the inner good stuff. Cured onions will last months.
With fresh onions, the whole thing is the good stuff. No papery skin to peel off, it's ready to be cut up and thrown into the skillet! Fresh onions will last a couple weeks in your fridge if you store in the chiller drawer. To preserve the green stalks, store in a plastic bag with the top of the bag open.
To prepare for cooking with your fresh onions, rinse under cold water, place on cutting board, and chop the globe as you would a normal onion. You can also use the lower part of the green stalk (the part attached to the white globe) as you would scallions.
The flavor is bright, somewhat more mild than cured onions and very unique. It's one of the specialties you have access to as part of the CSA!
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