Did you know that onions have been used in the past to predict the next year’s weather? Neither did I. Gastro Obscura has a very interesting article this week describing how twelve layers from a freshly-cut onion were salted and left overnight to see how they reacted to predict what the climate would be for the next 12 months. According to the article, “The onion calendar, or onion oracle, dates back to the Middle Ages, when onions and other root vegetables were used by farmers to predict precipitation for the year ahead. Some of the oldest records of using onions as an oracle are from the small town of Urbania, Italy, where the tradition is still practiced today.”
