Onions and Ants

The onion and its relatives such as shallot, chives, and garlic are among the oldest of cultivated vegetables and are grown around the world for food and as flower garden plants. Bits of onion have been found in pre-Bronze Age settlements some 7,000 years old.
Here at our cottage we use them both as food and as flower. What can be better than chopped or ringed onions fried in a bit of butter until nearly clear and sweet? Even the sensible ant knows one of the onion's charms, a sweet nectar offered by each flower in the onion's flower ball.
The commercial onion reportedly has the distinction of having been banned in 1958 from futures contract trading due to past market manipulations. This case study of agricultural prices and futures trading remains in effect.