Know your Onions

Onions, garlic and leeks are all members of the allium family.   I can’t imagine life without onions or indeed any of the other alliums.  Soups, stews, dips, salads, the list of their uses is endless.  There are also health benefits which include being good sources of Vitamins B6 and C and sulphur which is good for the liver.  They are cited as being useful in reducing blood pressure, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, antiviral and they are thought to be effective in reducing the size of cancer tumours.

It is possible to have your own onions growing or in storage all year round.  I tend to buy onion sets, which are small onion bulbs, as they are very reliable; but you can also start from seed and there is a lot more variety to choose from if you go down this route; but it is more fiddly.

 I plant autumn onion sets around the end of September to the middle of October, there is a variety called Radar which I have used for many years.  The advantage with these is you can start pulling the onions as soon as they are of a reasonable size around March if you need them, or you can leave them to bulk up and they are usually ready a good six weeks earlier than the main crop.  If you like red onions, there are sets for these available for autumn planting too, look out for Electric Red. 

You can sow White Lisbon Winter Hardy until October, with the later sowings you can extend the cropping period with the use of cloches or the protection of a polytunnel or greenhouse.  There is no reason why scallions or salad onions cannot replace regular onions in most recipes. 

Purplette onion bulbs

This year I found a real little gem, a dual purpose salad onion called Purplette.  They start off as a normal salad onion, but the stems are a nice purple/red colour, as they mature, they form mini red onions and get to quite a nice size, handy if you have a small family or just want a smaller onion for your recipe.  Red onions are normally milder and sweeter than the white ones and are lovely used in quiches and pizzas or they would make an interesting pickled onion.

Onion sets for storing are planted as soon as conditions allow around February or March.  They are ready for harvest in late July to mid August when the tops start going over.  Lift the bulbs and put them somewhere to dry out, they can be plaited or stored in nets and hung up in an airy, dry, frost free place.  If your onions start to form a flower spike, cut it off and then use them as soon as possible, if you allow the flowers to form the middle of the onion will eventually become hard and useless, so better to use it up even if it is small than have to throw it in the compost. Do not attempt to store any onions with thick necks, they won’t keep.  Onions usually respond to stress by flowering, so periods of unusually hot weather like we had back in May can trigger this, you can help prevent it happening by covering with some shading/windbreak material which will keep them a bit cooler.

If you like something a bit unusual, look out for Egyptian or walking onions.  The bulbs are planted and grow like normal, then they start forming more onions on the top of the stalk and then bend over which plants the small bulbs into the ground, they also can produce flowers that turn into tiny bulblets which can also be planted, no two plants seem to do the same thing, they are fascinating. You can eat the small bulbs in salads and the larger parts can be cooked like any other onion.  Of interest to permaculture and forest gardeners as they are self perpetuating.

My main crop onions this year have been a complete disaster.  The weather conditions have not been great, the wind and rain have battered them, a great crowd of rooks came down and pecked lots of holes in them and then they succumbed to mildew.  I am going to harvest what is left and get them dried off in the tunnel, if they don’t look as if they will store, I will peel and slice and put in the freezer for using in soups and pasta sauces.

If you want to contact me with questions or your tips, email me, Nelly Dean on cottagegardenerdromahair@gmail.com