.Storing Onions

[Gourmet_Mom]

I know when you buy them at the store, the tops are off, but in the home garden, would you cut off the tops? I'm thinking leaving them on would encourage them to rot. OR do I leave them on until the tops have dried out and then take them off? Can you tell I've never done this?

[cjs]

I think we used to leave approx. 1-2" of the stem on. But, first we'd leave them laying on the ground for a few days the way we did with garlic.

[Gourmet_Mom]

I'm thanking you a lot today...LOL! To late to leave on the ground, but a good "need to know for future reference". In another thread....the slug one...I mentioned a book, Country Wisdom Almanac. William picked this up yesterday and it's got some really good stuff in it. One of the things I found was braiding onions. I think I may give that a try!

[Lorraine]

My sister still grows enough onions to almost make it through the winter. She dries them on the ground for a few days (no slug problem where she is). She doesn't cut the top, just ties them with string and hangs them from the rafters in a cool place. Good luck! PS My Mother used to do the same thing.

[iBcookin]

We stored ours in the basement last year, stacked in bread trays. Did the same with the 500# of potatoes we bought. The trick with the onions for us is to pull them before they start to grow again, let them dry and NOT let them get frosted. Bruce always seemed to forget that last part. He would let them outside drying off and we'd get a frost and that would start the decay.

Mine lasted until April this year when I finally ran out, and the potatoes lasted right up until we are digging fresh.

[Gourmet_Mom]

As with the corn and onions, we did not plant enough potatoes, so we've decided to try fall potatoes. I haven't figured out if we can do fall onions also. I would think so.

As for keeping things in the basement, we don't have basements around here. I wish I could transplant the "summer house" from my mother's farm to ours. (I assume that's what people used in this part of the country because they couldn't have root cellars.) It would be perfect. The only thing I know to do is put them in the coolest room of the house, other than the bedroom...LOL, and hope for the best.

[iBcookin]

Now that you say that, I remember that when we vacationed down there. Is the water table so high that you don't have basements?

Do you get low temps in the winter, could you store the stuff in a garage?

[Lorraine]

Not that I live there, but in Charleston, many of the homes close to the water are built on stilts. I was told it was so that if there was a hurricane, the water would flow right under the house. I'm sure someone will come and correct me if I'm wrong.

[Gourmet_Mom]

iBcookin, I have celebrated Christmas in shorts. Last year we only had a few weeks of really cold temps. I wore my summer/fall wardrobe all year. I'll have keep them inside until the temps outside sustain at 45-55 at night. Then I can keep them in the front part of our greenhouse. It has a concrete floor and no windows. Stays pretty cool if the nighttime temps stay low. The greenhouse is closed off.

And yes, I can dig in my yard about 3-5 feet and hit water, depending on how dry it is.

Lorraine, you are correct. A lot of the houses on the beaches along our coast are built that way. It's sad to see some people enclose the bottom to increase the capacity for rental...Those are the ones most likely to come down in a storm.