Onion Harvest

The onion harvest is beginning. Last year, I remember that I started too late and then, by leaving the onions out in the sun after they were picked, many of them went soft. I am starting earlier this year. So far, I haven't harvested many, maybe two dozen of the long red Florence. There are maybe a dozen left of that variety. They turned out to be a very nice size. There could be more of them, I suppose. But I am very happy with what I have. I'm not sure quite how to store them. I am thinking that some will need to be diced and frozen. I would like to keep some for fresh use.


I picked two dozen of the yellow of Parma. Even though there are fewer than I expected, they are all nicely sized. I may get a few more from the Parma bed. One question I have about the rest of the Parma is whether to save the seed or not. The seed all come from early bloomers. I doubt that it was genetics that caused the early bloom, I attribute it to environmental conditions. If it is genetics, I may be perpetuating a one-season variety. Of course, I don't know. Perhaps I will save seed and plant these seeds separate from the left over seed I have from this year and see if there is a difference. It may not be a strong test given that the seed will all be related anyway and one generation cannot possibly make that much difference in genetic variation.