I HAVE done a lot of crying over the holiday period. The tears have rolled freely down my face. The kitchen tissue has been ripped down to the last few sheets on the roll.

It wasn't that I was upset at not getting that shiny red Audi TT in my Christmas stocking, or that I had just opened my post-festive bank statement, or even that I'd was chastising myself for breaking the first of my New Years resolutions. No, I was just preparing an evening meal.

A friend had given me a string of home-grown organic onions late in December. I had put them in the garage to store until I had used up my ongoing stock of shop bought ones.

They looked innocent enough; that is until I had peeled off the outer skin. I was immediately hit by a wall of burning fumes.

My eyes started streaming straight away and my nose began to dribble soon after. I am usually quite tolerant of such things, but these were extra potent onions. I persevered, and even managed to play the sympathy vote rather well.

The resulting dinner was absolutely fabulous though. The onions had traded their pungency for a mild, tangy sweetness.

They didn't have that lingering chemical aftertaste that often sticks to the roof of your mouth with some commercially grown vegetables.

I remember buying a massive netted bag of enormous, attractive and firm onions from a roadside barn in Norfolk.

They looked and felt wonderful. I only used a handful from the whole bag. The flavour was completely artificial, acrid and manufactured.

Onions have a large water content and are constantly sucking up moisture from the surrounding soil. If that moisture contains chemicals then they will be taken up into, and stored in, the plant tissue.

Onions are such easy vegetables to grow.

They can either be sown as seeds under cover early in the year (sprinkle seeds onto moist multipurpose compost and then cover lightly with sieved compost), or as sets, straight out in situ, in spring. They need minimal maintenance, little feed and can be cropped all year round.

Most people only use the bulb, but I find the green leafy stems very versatile, especially in salads and quiches.

I found my eyes streaming again just a few days later, but this time it was self inflicted. I was making some flavoured oil, by infusing it with a mixture of herbs (bay, sage, rosemary and thyme), garlic, and chilli.

I just gently crush the ingredients, push them into a jar and fill the jar with cheap olive oil. I leave this on a warm windowsill for a week or so.

The oil takes on the flavour of the herbs and garlic. The chilli intensifies the flavours without really adding heat. Unless you intend to use it all within a fortnight or so, it is always best to remove the herbs once they have imparted enough flavour, as they go soggy. Y

ou can always shove a fresh sprig in to make it look good.

The chillies that I used were the ones that we have been growing in the hydroponicum at Natures World.

Given a little heat (sunshine heat, not spicy heat) they will continue growing and cropping all year round.

They are grown not for their culinary uses, but primarily as an attractive display, as they come in all colours, shapes and sizes.

They range from the tiny round red ones through to the large banana shaped bright orange ones. As a rule, the smaller the chilli, the bigger the heat.

I used a selection of the smaller chillies in my oil, as they are more visually attractive. However, for flavour purposes I also wanted to use a larger one, chopped up, so that there was more raw surface area coming into contact with the oil.

I completely forgot about having cut up the chilli, until it came to removing my contact lenses at the end of the evening.

I always wear safety goggles when I'm out doing something dangerous in the garden, and it is something that I spend a lot of energy trying to get the trainees to do.

I am now going to have to start wearing them when I'm in the kitchen as well.

JOBS THIS WEEK

* Prune trees

Most ornamental trees, and all fruit trees except those with a stone in (cherry, plum etc) can be pruned now that they are dormant. Cut out the dead stuff first, then remove anything that rubs or crosses other branches. Shaping and clearing space for wires is next. Always make an undercut before sawing down through the branch. This prevents ripping of the bark and the possible entry of infection.

* Insulate garden taps

Stop the taps freezing up as the temperature tumbles by wrapping them up in either purpose made jackets or bubble wrap held in place with electrical tape.

* Mulch fruit trees

Remove or weed out any grass from around the base of the trees. Mulch this with well rotted farmyard manure (no need to dig in), or at the very least cover with chipped bark and water in an all purpose feed.

POST SCRIPT

Brigid presents 'Ask about Gardening' every Sunday from 12-2pm on BBC Radio Cleveland 95FM.

Published: 10/01/2004