Its onion time!
Over the past 4 years that I have been gardening my onions are always a little reluctant to be ready come September. I say that because they are usually grapefruit size and not showing any sign of toppling over and it’s getting below zero at nights. So I give them a little incentive with the ole rake. Take that you unruly onions I would say and within a few days I would be back out to collect my victims.
However, year after year I wouldn't cure them properly and then would go rotten before I could use them. I didn't realize until finding my amazing blog friends that you can freeze onions! Now that would have both saved and caused a few tears!
This year following the great information I have been reading online I am going to try and cure my onions the right way.
I pulled up a few on Wednesday and have been letting them dry out in the sun.
Today I am going to have to move them inside or to some places where it is shady and breezy. However, that may be hard to find. I don’t want to put them in the main garage since the cats are in there and it of course stinks like cat pee. The other double garage i think has mice in it so not willing to chance that. Finally I have the little garage out back, but it there is no ventilation in there...so I am thinking that the basement might be where they are going to end up..lol The other option is to put them in the porch, but I am not too sure I want to be smelling onions every time I walk into the house for the next 2 weeks!
I still have another 10 or so onions left in the garden too. I think I may just pull them out, chop and freeze.
I am also going to attempt to try and braid the onions...so stay tuned for that in the next week or two!
My sweet onions are lasting longer than I thought they would, but I think I'd better chop and freeze them soon or they might start rotting on me. I'm looking forward to having them pre-chopped and ready this winter. I'll take them south with me, as onions down there tend to go for about a dollar a pound. Hopefully I'll have room for frozen onions, peppers and tomato sauce, as well as green beans. I might have to buy some styrofoam coolers!
ReplyDeleteI don't think they will smell as bad as kraut making:o).
ReplyDeleteI'd use a food processor and slice them up..layer them
between saran once they freeze put them in the freezer in a bag and take out what you want when you need them...that's what I did and it works for me.
Annie's Granny- It sounds like you are going to need more than styrofoam coolers to hold all your veggies. I think you might have to rent a refridgerated truck!
ReplyDeleteGingerbreadhouse7-I agree they wont be as bad as kraut! Thanks for the tip I remember reading the post you had about chopping onions!
I froze most of my sweet onions. I kept a few that need to be used up in the next couple of weeks. But the rest I cured. I hope they last. It is the first good onion harvest I've ever had so the first time they will have to last any length of time. The two onions are good keepers so I'm hoping.
ReplyDeleteDaphne-I hope your onions last too. It is such a disappointment when they do not!
ReplyDelete