Pulled up my onions - now what?

[kate egg]

I think you are supposed to store them till the stems go dry? Cannot do this outside as it won't stop bloomin' raining. Do I need to keep them apart? Warm or cold?

[Totally Scrambled]

Hello Kate,
The old fashioned way was to plait the leaves together with garden twine/string up the middle to make a string of onions and hang them in the shed and use as wanted. I've done it in the past, although my girls did the plaiting, and it worked.
Dom

[p.penn]

I was looking at mine today - did your tops go brown first Kate?

[kate egg]

The stemmy things (getting technical here) are still green but the onion that was out of the soil was mostly brown. I would probably have left them a little longer but I mentioned to middle son to pull one to see if it was ready and he puilled them all (I guess they are mostly between 3 and 4 inches diameter)

[teddymouse]

put them on wire rakes to dry out,in a dry cool place,like a shed,the out side will go papery and the tops will die down,once dry,cut the tops off leaving about 4-5",then string them together,l use the legs off tights(washed 1st)

angie

[kate egg]

Thanks Angie - sounds good, I just need to persuade my son to let me have some shed space (its full of car parts at the mo)

[lancashire lass]

I have a pasting board that seems to have taken permanent residence in the back bedroom right in front of the 8 foot wide window as that room gets full sun (when it's available ) most of the day so is ideal for sowing seeds, and now has been very useful for drying garlic, shallots and soon the onions that are spread out. This year I bought a couple of hanging toy tidy nets that you hang up and looks like a big tube about 8 feet long divided into about 4 compartments - I'm hoping to store my onions in there.

[kate egg]

I think I may be able to get some shelves in the shed - middle son got the car back from the bodyshop that he is restoring, so all the car parts should be going back on it bit by bit which means space for me!

[Mrs Fuzzywig]

I have no room for drying anything in my sheds so will be trying something a little radical. I'm going to tie my onions onto two opposite sides of my rotary dryer with garden twine, to keep them dry I'll cover the whole dryer with a hugh transparent tarpauline and tie it on to stop the wind from blowing everything away. By using opposite sides it will keep the dryer balanced and it still leaves me the other two sides to dry the washing! If all goes well I hope to leave the onions outside untill they are dry enough to plait together.

[kate egg]

Sounds fun - photos???

[AL37]

Tumble dryer?

[AL37]

aarrgghh!
Just remembered now that the mrs is a member I shouldn't tell all my secrets.
Oh boy am I in bother if she reads this.

[Mrs Fuzzywig]

No problem taking photos. just no idea how to put them up on here, which is a shame as I have an amusing carrot one.

[kate egg]

I also have a funny carrot photo - I must get it off my phone and onto the computer

[foghornleghorn2]

I also have a funny carrot photo - I must get it off my phone and onto the computer

Esther is that you ?