Alliums All Year
Here at Chiot’s Run we LOVE onions and eat alliums of some form almost every day. There’s no way I would ever have enough room to grow a large enough patch of bulb onions that we could eat all year long. It would also be hard to be able to store the onions for as long as we would need to.
As a result I’ve been learning to grow and love other alliums like leeks, bunching onions, potato onions, scallions, shallots, potato onions, and perennial leeks. Most of these alternative alliums fill in the time between the last onion from the pantry and the first bulb onion harvest from the garden. I’m happy to report that since last spring we’ve been able to use our homegrown alliums almost exclusively.
This year I’m growing a few different types of long storing onions trying to find one that stores the longest.
Here are the types I’m growing:
‘Copra’ – Uniform, “rock-hard” storage onion with early maturity. These medium-sized, dark yellow-skinned storage onions have the preferred blocky round shape with thin necks that dry quickly. Firmness and skin are superior. Copra remains one of the best in our yearly storage trials, staying firm and flavorful after most other varieties have sprouted. Highest in sugar (13°-14°) of the storage onions. Adaptation: 38°-55° latitude. (source of seeds and plants: Johnny’s Seeds)
This variety was recommended by many of you and a few local friends. I started seeds in January and transplanted them to the garden in March. I also direct seeded them in the garden in March as well. One bunch of plants arrived in mid-April and they were planted shortly thereafter. The reason behind the three different growing methods is to see which ones size up the best and store the longest. There will definitely be another bog post or two about this.
‘Red Zeppelin’ – Medium to large, globe-shaped bulbs with deep red color. Red Zeppelin will store for six months or more under proper conditions. Adaptation: 38°-45° latitude. (source of seeds and plants: Johnny’s Seeds). I planted 3 bunches of these in mid-April the day they arrived and have high hopes for them because we love red onions and it can be difficult to find long storing varieties.
‘Stuttgarter’ – The old standby for yellow storage onions from sets. 2”- 3” diameter bulbs are flat bottomed and have a nice strong flavor. Excellent storage into June. For the best yields, plant as soon as the ground can be worked. (source: Maine Potato Lady) This variety of onion is raved about by Gertrud Franck in the book Companion Planting: Successful Gardening the Organic Way which I’m thoroughly enjoying right now.
‘Red Baron’ – A really nice red onion with flavor not too pungent. Great raw in salads and sandwiches. Though not as large or high-yielding as Stuttgarter, Red Baron is a nice addition to your onion bin. I’ve experienced good storage, easily into May. (source: Maine Potato Lady)
My hope is with all these different varieties our onion baskets in the pantry will still be providing bulb onions until the ‘Forum’ onions I talked about yesterday are ready to harvest. I most certainly will be happy if I can be eating caramelized onions and potatoes from the pantry next May!
What’s your favorite way to eat onions?
Share this:
Forum Onions in the Garden
Last Friday I harvested the first bulbing onions from the garden. After a few months relying on leeks and green onions to fill the onion void, it was cause for a small celebration. Most of my onions aren’t even close to being ready to harvest, more on those varieties tomorrow.
Last year I came across ‘Forum’ onions – described by Johnny’s Seeds as: Forum onion sets can be planted in the spring and yield a “green top” cooking onion by the beginning of July and a dried bulb by the end of July. This onion will fill the gap between last year’s storage onions and this year’s crop from seed. Not for long storage. Best at 37° latitude and higher.
They went into the ground the day after they arrived in the mailbox, April 12 (wish they had arrived a month earlier). I’ve been watching them and was pleasantly surprised when they started forming bulbs much earlier than my other onions, which were planted later than these.
They’re not fully formed yet, but some of the tops are flopping over already. The ones I harvested were about the size of a golf ball with one that was closing in on baseball size. They good thing is that these don’t store for very long so they’re not meant to be kept as a storage onion. They’re meant to be used up quickly making it easier to harvest them early like this.
Now that I’ve discovered this gem it will always have a place in my garden. I’ll be trying to find another variety or two early maturing onions to add alongside these. Some research produced a few early maturing short storage onions that can be grown from seed: Arsenal, Early Yellow Globe, Precedent. I’ll be searching for seeds for these varieties as well since I prefer to grow my own onions from seed rather than purchased sets or plants.
Do you have a hard time harvesting vegetables before they’re fully mature or full sized?
Share this:
So Sweet
Some of you were reading back when “Miss Mamma” a feral cat moved her kittens into our garage. Miss Mamma is no longer with us, she is resting peacefully under a pussy willow in the front garden. One of her kittens survived A Series of Unfortunate Events and still lives in our garage. I was trying to remember how old she was, then I realized she’s just turning two now.
We’re so glad she survived her series of unfortunate events as a wee kitten because she has grown into a super sweet cat. For the longest time she was feral, not letting either of us get near her, much less pet her. Probably because of her early trip to the vet as a kitten and once again to get her fixed at 6 months.
She’s still semi-feral, but in the last few months she’s finally tame enough to let me pet her. Everywhere I go in the garden she’s not far behind, watching what I’m doing with her big curious eye, chasing insects and simply enjoying life as a cat.
Now that she’s older, we’re noticing a lot of her mamma’s traits in her and we’re thankful for that. We both say Miss Mamma was the best cat we’ve ever had. She doesn’t have an official name, we just call her “The Sweets”. We figured naming outdoor cats wasn’t a good idea since they usually live short lives, as was the sad case with Miss Mamma.
The Sweets keeps our garage rodent free and she keeps the chipmunks out of the garden. We never set out to have outdoor cats, but sometimes you can’t help it, they just show up at your door. They get trapped, fixed and fed and usually weave themselves into the fabric of life here at Chiot’s Run.
We’ve had our share of cats that just show up, I can’t even begin to nail down an actual number, most are feral and move along, though a few stick around. In the case of Dexter we think he was a pet someone left at the back gate of our allotment.
While I love cats, it makes me sad that we have to deal with so many because people don’t spay & neuter or decide to dump them off “in the country”. At least a few of them end up at Chiot’s Run where they can live a cat’s dream!
Have you ever had an animal show up at your door?
Share this:
Quote of the Day: La Quintinye (Louis XIV’s gardener)
Where a potager should be located with respect to the house? If there is enough space, the area nearest should be kept for flowers and parterres and the potager should be on the best ground beyond that is still readily accessible. But if one can have but one garden, it would be far better to employ fruits & legumes than in box & grass” La Quintinye (Louis XIV’s gardener)
The Art of French Vegetable Gardening
I had to laugh when I read this quote, too funny with the current cultural norms in our society where the opposite is the case. Here at Chiot’s Run we have both box and grass alongside edibles. We definitely have more edible plants than ornamental, but I find many edibles to be highly ornamental. Of course back when this was said one would have to choose edible over ornamental if you weren’t wealthy and wanted to eat.
Stan Hywet in Akron has both ornamental and edible gardens. As does Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania and many other botanical gardens.
While I love my edibles, I still really appreciate the beauty of box, grass, and other non-edible species. My efforts will never be solely spent on growing edibles, for I find just as much nourishment, though of a different kind, from a fragrant peony and hydrangeas, to shaped green boxwood. In fact I’ve always dreamed of having boxwoods in pots by the door and just recently added some (read my post on the Your Day Blog about it).
What’s your favorite non-edible plant(s) for the garden?
Share this:
The Garden that Mr Chiots Built
Mr Chiots isn’t much of a gardener, at least not in the same way I am. He helps with garden tasks, generally those that involve power tools, spud bars or difficult heavy work. He asks lots of questions, loves to look at all the plants and enjoys the garden.
A few years ago he decided that we needed something around the mailbox. I didn’t want to dedicate any of my time towards it, so he decided it would be his garden. He chose the plants, transplanted them, surrounded them with rocks and keeps it weeded.
This year it’s looking very nice and he’s very proud of his little garden.
How many gardeners live in your household?
Chiot’s Run Garden Tour
The Middle Garden
The Side Garden
The Front Hillside Garden
Mr Chiot’s Mailbox Garden
Garden Tour: The Front Garden
