Dug them up, shook off excess dirt, left the long tops intact-this is what you braid. After letting them dry out a bit, (several days in a hot garage on an old screen door) the tops krinkle turning brown with a tiny bit of green down in the onion tops for strength.
southpaw (plural southpaws) (informal) One who is left-handed, especially in sports. (baseball) A left-handed pitcher. Since home plate is generally in the southwest corner to avoid glare in the batter's eyes, a southpaw's pitching hand is to the south. (one who is left-handed): left-hander, lefty.
Southpaw is of obscure origin. A popular theory holds that it comes from the onetime position of ballparks in relation to the sun. Supposedly, late 19th-century ballparks were laid out so that the pitcher looked in a westerly direction when facing the batter. The throwing arm of a left-handed pitcher would then be to the south-hence the name southpaw. This theory of its origin is undermined, however, by the fact that the original use of southpaw does not involve baseball at all. Rather, the term was used as early as 1848 to describe, simply, the left hand or a punch or blow given with the left hand.