(I've had two posts do about a tenth as well on HN as your onions piece, both on different blogs of mine and that didn't result in follow-up posts on those blogs being similarly successful. So my opinion is somewhat informed by firsthand experience, fwiw.)
I was also born and raised in Georgia, so I just loved your onions piece because I'm from the Deep South. For health reasons, I will never again live in the Deep South, so I like nostalgically visitating via internet from time to time.
I may, at some point, post some of your stuff myself on r/GigWorks, but I'm a one woman show here with too many irons in the fire, so lots of stuff either takes me forever to actually get around to or just never happens even though I would like to get to it. Sometimes, life just keeps getting in my way.
I am something of a fan of onions. They are good lung support, but can be somewhat hard on the gut. Vidalia's have always been my favorite onion because they are so mild, so they are easier on my touchy gut.
It's one of the reasons your article caught my eye.
Best of luck with your endeavors, both online (finding your writing voice) and off (selling onions, or whatever it is you do out in meat space).