Onions Step 2

Last year, I left the onions in the ground too long and then left them out too long in the sun. I may have committed the last error again this year, but not the same extent. The constraint was that I picked on Friday and couldn't get back to them until Monday and Sunday and Monday were very hot days. In the end, you get what you get and I think I will have plenty of onions to process.

My next step (just to keep it for the record) is to bring the onions into the house, chop off the stalks, clean them up a bit, and then stick them in the refrigerator until I can get back to them for Step 3.

One of my unofficial readers, Pat P., suggested that next year, I might want to either plant onion plants (not sets) or plant seeds. I think I am likely to try seeds this fall if I can find some and let them grow over winter. The onions I am holding in this picture were planted that way. I got seeds from Seed Savers Exchange for the long red Florence variety of onion. These were the largest onions in the garden. The problem I had last year with the onion seeds I planted was very spotty germination, but they were planted with poor cover. I think I can do better this year.