Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Onions - Foiled Again

Seems like I'm running par for the course when it comes to onions. I've had hollow onions and onions that never grew past pencil thickness. This year, the onions actually got pretty large around and were looking rather impressive until Tuesday morning when I realized that many of them were sending up a seed stalk.

Whereas normal for garlic, apparently, sending up seed stalks for onions is bad. I've read it's caused by extreme temperature fluctuations, which we sure have had this past week. I read you could cut off the stem, but it really wouldn't matter because the onions wouldn't be good for storage, so I decided just to cut my losses and allow more room for the non bolting ones to bulb up.

So. What do you do with onions that are bulbing and sending up a flower stalk? Yes, I used some in dinner tonight and I chopped some up to freeze and use later, but I just have something against frozen onions since they never work just right. I weighed my options for the rest and chose this:


There was only one taker all day, but hey, it was worth a shot. I'm planning on setting out the tomato transplants later this week. Hopefully those will fare better.

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

15 comments:

  1. That big dog probably skeered off the customers ;-) Just kidding, I love the big baby.

    I'm thinking of putting some of my extra plants out front, with a "donation" box.

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  2. I had a lot of my onions last year bolt. I still harvested them as usual and dried them. Since they were copra they really kept pretty well anyway. Maybe only for 2-3 months instead of 6. I made sure to use those ones up first.

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  3. That's so weird, because mine aren't showing any sign of bolting. Hmm...I don't understand, because mine are more mature than yours, and are in full sun....just weird....

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  4. I wish I lived in a neighborhood where I could do that! Instead all the kids around here would throw them all over the street... no parents ever watching them so I doubt they are the kind of people who would enjoy, plant or cook, LOL! Their loss, since I would have had a free box of Heirloom Tomatoes out every week!

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  5. EG, these are in the side yard where it is full sun.

    Erin, this is a pretty nice neighborhood when it comes to children, but I also think that's because they're all around 6 so they can't be outside without constant parental supervision yet. The times will change, I'm sure.

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  6. Do you have enough to can? Onion preserves are awesome, I have a recipe on my site somewhere I think....you could make up the preserves/jam and just store it in the fridge to use in the near future.

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  7. mmmmmm, Kelly. You may just have an idea there. I'll go search your site. Thanks!

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  8. Or you could chop them and keep them in a jar of oil in the fridge like you do garlic. That way you get onion oil, too. Don't know if they'll keep that way, but you could try.

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  9. Did you find it? If not I can look for it on my site or the internet, the recipe came from somewhere out in cyberspace. :)

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  10. In case you are still interested go under LABELS in my sidebar, click on "recipes" and it is under the post "Other People's Gardens" along with a photo of some jams.

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  11. Oh man, or an onion tart. Or soup with the whites, fried rice with the greens. Mmmmmmm.

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  12. Sweet, Kelly. THanks. Honestly I hadn't looked yet, but I will tonight. I've been unloading compost all day. Woohoo for $%^&!

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  13. For some reason, I've never thought about selling my excess produce or seedlings. This might be the inspiration I need. If I lived close by, I would have certainly purchased some. :)

    I'm a big fan of thinly sliced crispy fried onions. They are great as a garnish or to flavor Asian soups. They last for a long time when kept frozen.

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  14. Ribbit, did you have a post about potatoes that has disappeard? It shows on my page but isn't there when I click it.

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  15. Thomas, like granny says, it's probably nicer to just put out a sign that says, "Free," but if I can make my seed money back, I'll be happy.

    Amy, the post should be there now. I published it by accident when I wanted to schedule it to post this morning.

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