There’s maybe a brand new approach for beachcombers to categorise their findings throughout a stroll alongside the shore. Minerals have all the time been apparent; sand and rocks verify that field. And animals, each stay and useless, are generally noticed.
Vegetative matter, similar to seaweeds and rooted vegetation, can be the same old culprits when considering of vegetation, however just lately a distinct sort of vegetable made an look. The brand new youngsters on the shoreline weren’t your typical beachgoer. They have been the kind of greens present in native grocery shops, within the pantry and in your soup.
Amanda Dickinson was the primary to sound the alarm over the presence of a backyard vegetable, and from her report got here a cornucopia of crops domestically described from Island coast to coast. Purple onions, Amanda famous, littered the seashore from Spring Level to Menemsha.
The onion hunt was on. Extra pink onions have been reported by others throughout Winery seashores: at Cedar Tree Neck, Brickyard seashore, Menemsha Hills, Nice Rock Bight, Philbin, and even the Winery Haven Harbor seashore. Different adventurers jumped in with their very own accounts of seashore produce. White onions at Moshup, yellow onions and squash at State Seashore, broccoli at Homosexual Head, cantaloupe at Lobsterville, and a single jalapeño on Marble Seashore (in the event you don’t know the place Marble Seashore is, the finder isn’t telling). There have been footage for proof.
Then tales of fascinating previous seashore finds emerged: 1000’s of Ok-cups on South Seashore, coconuts, a shoreline of sneakers, and pink scrumptious apples (which the reporter noticed have been nonetheless edible so instructed making onion soup with the washed-up alliums).
The elusive and infrequently noticed onion migration, which occurs earlier than the peppers fly south for the winter, might have been interrupted, inflicting these roots to fall from the sky, somebody instructed. Puns have been irresistible and got here in a cascade of feedback. Ought to we clear up the crops? Provided that they lettuce. Can or not it’s believed, or is it only a bunch of bologna? Commenters got here up with a plethora of potential causes that ranged from the cheap to the conspiratorial.
Was there a ship that misplaced its cargo? Perhaps. How a few boat that inadvertently misplaced its provisions? Or presumably it was onions dumped after a 2020 recall as a consequence of salmonella? It could possibly be a sensible joke on Islanders or simply extra 2020 weirdness. Even the Russians have been blamed for the culinary collusion.
Regardless of the trigger, the profusion of produce supplied a much-needed smile and snort for many people. Perhaps it was a manna from heaven, a joke, or a well-orchestrated January April Idiot’s Day. Regardless of the cause for the seashore harvest, it has been enjoyable peeling again the layers of ideas and slicing and dicing the dialogue. Although not fried, these onions (and their vegetative brethren) have been an fascinating strategy to ring within the New Yr.
Suzan Bellincampi is government director of the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary.
