Tuesday 15 September 2009

Onions

I've just had to buy my first onions since June/July when I started digging up my homegrown allotment onions. I *hate* having buy onions, I've decided, and next year will plant loads more onions and garlic too on the allotment as they grew so well and were so tasty, and now that I know how to dry and store them properly. Now if only I could remember how many onion sets I bought last year to give me this 2/3 month's worth crop this year.

Can anyone give me advice on storing potatoes? I have a bumper crop and the nights are starting to get cold, so I want to be digging them well before the first frost, but we have nowhere dark and cold to store them - no root cellar, no garage and no rodent-proof shed. What we have got is a plastic toolshed (with the lift-up roof from Argos, you know the kind!) on the north wall of our house. If I store the potatoes in that, inside a cardboard box and newspaper, will they stay good, do you think? Would the forst get at them in there? Or does anyone have any better ideas (other than digging a root cellar)?

6 comments:

Joxy34 said...

I would recommend rather than newspaper, straw, insulating them well and then digging up some earth and putting that over too.

That way they should survive the frost and won't go green either because of light :)

Carolyn said...

Hmmm potatoes...well we dug up our earlies towards the end of June and have since been stored under my kitchen table in a cardboard box covered with a brown paper bag!!! They are doing fine, bearing in mind my kitchen is very hot in the warm weather and cold when it is cold!!! 3 walls exposed to the outside world and sun from 11 am right round until bedtime in summer.
As for onions, I know what you mean, we have just 2 red onions left....boo hoo!!!!

Elsie Button said...

we have the same problem as you with our potatoes. we are just putting them in a cardboard box with newspaper and hope they survive.

Just found your blog by the way. My husband and i seriously considering homeschooling (we have a 3 year old and 5 month old) and your blog has been really really helpful. and you sound very like minded! Hubby off on a permaculture couse soon!

Glad to find you!

bethnoir said...

no idea, but you've inspired me to plant some onions next year!

Liz said...

Thanks all, about half our crop are now in their cardboard box, fingers crossed!

Welcome Elsie, hope your husband enjoys his permaculture course, it's something I've also toyed with, be interesting to hear about!

Lorna said...

We've had the same problem with oinons. We planted around 50 and realy shoula have planted more. Next year we'll know better.