The Storage Onion Harvest
Yesterday I loaded both dehydrators with the Walla Walla Sweet onions. I got a ½ gallon jar full this morning. The forecast is for no rain today, tomorrow and well into Friday.
On the strength of that, I dashed out and pulled up all the Cortland storage onions.
This is a 30 gallon tote, for scale, and these Cortland onions are a good deal larger than a softball.
These are the Walla Wallas and they are also a LOT bigger than a softball. (I have big feet…) I do not pull them up until I want to use them. They deteriorate pretty fast.
Because of all the rain we’ve had, the skins on the Cortland onions have started to rot. So I will wash off the rotten pieces and leave as much good skin as I can.
I will also wash off the dirt. With the humidity hovering between 80 – 100%, I’m not leaving anything that will hold it.
As I clean the onions, I trim off the roots, and try to handle the tops as gently as possible. I intend to braid them to store the onions, so I need as much top as I can save.
Those are standard size scissors, and 8” boards on the table, for scale…
The onions are laid out to dry and cure for the next couple days. Hopefully the tops will dry down enough to braid without breaking, before it rains. If not, I’ll have to cover them with a tarp when it rains.
I also use the tops to cover as many of the onions as I can, to prevent sunburn.
Once I’d finished the storage onions, I picked 12 large Wallas to slice for the dehydrators.
You can see that using the knife makes much better use of the tray space. If only I could keep them more uniform in thickness.
I got both dehydrators loaded, it took 14 of those big onions. This will give me a second ½ gallon of dried onions. I will start chopping the Wallas tomorrow for freezing. I think I freeze something like 30 cups of them, maybe more. If there’s any left after that, I’ll dehydrate them.
House smells of onion, hmmmm, wonder why?
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Dang, I'm jealous of the dehydrator those are massive. I took a different approach, all my onions so far have gone into salsa or chili starter. Just finished a batch last night. it also helps take care of the garlic, peppers, and tomatoes.
I will be making sauce and ketchup later on when the tomatoes and peppers finally come in, if they don't all burst from all the rain...
I know the feeling, right in the middle of mine coming in we had a ton of rain and all the tops started splitting. Mine are starting to slow down now and the vines are already dying, but it's been a great harvest I've been bringing them out in 5 gallon buckets every 2 -3 days.
Beautiful tomatoes! I hope mine look like that....
wow what a task you had! The onions look lovely.. and I love dehydrating them. They add such a wonderful flavor to all sorts of dishes through the winter and are such a great way to preserve them for long term storage. Your garden looks beautiful btw!
Yep, that's why I did a second jar's worth, in case of another crop failure next year.
I'm curious... when you dehydrate the onions indoors, is the smell overwhelming?
When I dehydrate onions, peppers and garlic, I will out the dehydrator out in the shed.
These are sweet onions, so lower sulfur. I also have the windows open. But it's really not overwhelming. Now if I was doing the Cortlands, THEY'D be outside, with the windows closed!
I've not dehydrated garlic, but I have a nice big crop this year, so will be trying to make powder. So I will find out....
I have dehydrated sweet peppers w/o any trouble. We don't do hot peppers so can't speak to those, but I bet they'd be outside like the Cortland onions... :))
Oh great info!
I'll have to see if I can get some sweeter onions then.
I've been waiting for onions to be a good deal (I'll probably check the local fruit stand up the road from me) cause I want to make my own Mrs. Dash-like flavoring/seasoning mix using onions, garlic, peppers and celery from the garden.
How long did you have to dehydrate the onions?
I usually finish loading both the dehydrators around 3PM. They are probably done around midnight - 3AM, but because of the humidity, I leave them running until I can unload them about 6AM.