Monday, 16 July 2012

"Know Your Onions"


It’s been a good year for me anyway with my onions, normally with wet weather I find onions not to do so well, but this year I have had a bumper crop, only had 4 onions go to seed and they were all red Barons. Last year my onions were well pathetic, in fact the worst of all the crops I grew. I was determined to get a good crop this year.

I want to pull them now in case the rust that affected my garlic appears again and ruins my crop of onions.
I know onions don’t like to much water so this year when we had a spell of persistent wet weather I covered them over so they wouldn’t get to wet, I think it has paid off some of the bulbs are huge.
I haven’t the room to dig them all up just yet as I have them drying in the shed hung up over some rope. Normally I would dry them outside over a ladder but you need sun for that (it’s a big yellow thing that sits in the sky and makes things warm and helps plants to grow…so I have heard!) and this wet weather will not help them dry out! I am hoping the other half I have left in will be ok for another 2-3 weeks them I can pick them and dry them too.

Once they are dry I am going to have a go at platting them like you do with garic I have read that this helps them last longer and store well like it, you never know unless you try right?
Onions are such a versatile crop and to me as a chef, I couldn’t imagine a recipe without it in I am really looking forward to cooking with my first proper batch of home grown onions.


How’s your onion crop this year???



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9 comments:

  1. Hi! Really enjoying your blog and am impressed with your onions. Slow going for our onions this year, but we've had good success with Welsh onions (see our blog here http://tinyurl.com/7hylk5q ). Have you ever cooked with these?

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  2. My allotment onions are a bit pathetic, my home-grown onions are much better and swelling well, despite the rubbish weather.

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    1. Allotmentplot4, the weahter this year has been a bit of a challange hasnt it! last year we had no water this year to much. you cant win!

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  3. Our onions and especially our shallots have done really well this year. Although most have bolted (and won't store too well) we've been pretty happy with the results.

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  4. Our onions aren't growing well at all - I think the low temperatures maybe sent the growing into limbo for more than just onions too.

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  5. How's my onion crop? I'll tell you, in a single word of one syllable. Crap.

    The biggest one is about the size of a match head. The shallots are pathetic too. It's the same in the garden and at the field.

    Mind you, I found a few decent sized bulbs at Waitrose!

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  6. Our onions are a soggy mess. Yours look pretty good though! Fancy swapping?

    Martin :0)

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  7. Onions a sore point with me. Years ago we got a bumper crop and we thought it would be the same every year. That was a long time ago and we've had many disappointments since. )Keeping the rain off sounds crazy but for the last three years would have been a good strategy.) Leeks are the only reliable allium to grow in Scotland. Having said that I've dug up our first garlic crop and it's drying off in our shed now...

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  8. Haven't grown onions this year, but my leeks are just loving it! Horses for courses I guess. I wrote a post titled 'how to string onions' a few years ago, if you want you can search for it.

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