Cipolla di Eremiti is an onion whose name, according to Regione Campania, comes from Eremiti, a hamlet of Futani in the province of Salerno. What draws the eye is not spectacle but a mild, sweetish flavour still tied to kitchen gardens of the area, where the variety remains in intense use, generally for family tables rather than distant markets.
Its growing ground matches Futani and the neighbouring communes of that territory. The plant likes friable soils and a good face of sun. Set in autumn and winter, it is ready in April and May, when the bulbs come off the land as a short, bright season rather than a year-round staple.
Cultivation follows the intensive seasoning and the typical horticultural methods of working and conditioning described for this onion. When it does leave the plot, it is sold in bunches: a simple, local way of gathering the harvest. That bunch is a useful cue if you meet the name again—look for the hamlet, the spring window, and the gentle sweetness rather than a generic onion of Campania.