Curing onions on the divide

[Suzee]

Hey all! Again with securing the harvpest. Growing and harvesting are the 1 and 2 of gardening. But if we can’t store our food (3) it’s a huge waste. I have had many crops end up less than satisfactory for storage in the past and have tried to learn from my mistakes. Timing seems critical. I don’t have a big barn to cure my root crops so I have had to get creative. Our Quonset is kind of like a wind tunnel so I came up with a way to cure my onions by hanging them in chicken wire “hammocks “. They seem to be getting the air they need and are out of the reach of rodents, etc. I am hoping they will be ready to store before the heavy frosts come.

 

[flowerbug]

Hey all! Again with securing the harvpest. Growing and harvesting are the 1 and 2 of gardening. But if we can’t store our food (3) it’s a huge waste. I have had many crops end up less than satisfactory for storage in the past and have tried to learn from my mistakes. Timing seems critical. I don’t have a big barn to cure my root crops so I have had to get creative. Our Quonset is kind of like a wind tunnel so I came up with a way to cure my onions by hanging them in chicken wire “hammocks “. They seem to be getting the air they need and are out of the reach of rodents, etc. I am hoping they will be ready to store before the heavy frosts come.

from what i've done here (also without a root cellar) i've found the most important thing is to get them lifted before they start to rot and then i get as much dirt off them as i can and let them dry. with my most recent crop i did not get a lot of them lifted at a good time so there was some rot on some of them and fungi on the tunics so i spent time to peel that off so it would not get worse. as long as the onions are not damaged they will be ok until we can use them but they are not long keepers. we'll have most of them eaten within a month.

sadly i wasn't able to give Mom directions on how to do the yellow onions when she lifted those so we had to eat some of those rather quickly.

for now they are all in the garage and should be eaten before it gets too cold out there or we'll have to bring some of them in. we do eat a lot of onions so i think we'll finish them off before that's a problem.

our temporary root cellar is just the coolest spot near the front door which we hardly ever open.

 

[Suzee]

from what i've done here (also without a root cellar) i've found the most important thing is to get them lifted before they start to rot and then i get as much dirt off them as i can and let them dry. with my most recent crop i did not get a lot of them lifted at a good time so there was some rot on some of them and fungi on the tunics so i spent time to peel that off so it would not get worse. as long as the onions are not damaged they will be ok until we can use them but they are not long keepers. we'll have most of them eaten within a month.

sadly i wasn't able to give Mom directions on how to do the yellow onions when she lifted those so we had to eat some of those rather quickly.

for now they are all in the garage and should be eaten before it gets too cold out there or we'll have to bring some of them in. we do eat a lot of onions so i think we'll finish them off before that's a problem.

our temporary root cellar is just the coolest spot near the front door which we hardly ever open.

Sounds like MY root cellar! We’re expecting a cold snap soon, and I’m going to be trimming the tops off prematurely to speed up the curing process. I’d rather not, but I need to store the onions before it gets too cold. Also, Antelope season starts soon time is of the essence.

 

[flowerbug]

onion soup will be on the menu soon.

 

[ducks4you]

@flowerbug

Rich and Simple French Onion Soup

This simple French onion soup is made rich with a broiled bread topping and three types of cheese, making it a perfect recipe choice for cold nights.

www.allrecipes.com