garden news-onion harvest time

GARDEN NEWS-ONION HARVEST TIME 
i
when i harvested my onions when we lived in texas i would hang them in pantyhose in our garage 
when an onion was ready to be eaten we just clipped the onion off the chime

here in santa barbara this doesnt work as well
since
during harvest time in may and june we have may grey and june gloom
ie
the fog comes in off the ocean and stays in place until after lunch
sometimes it stays all day
so
in texas when i harvested these onions i would leave them laying on the ground for two weeks to dry out so the outer layers would dry up
then
i would cut off the stalks
drop the onion in a pantyhose
then
tie a knot in the pantyhose 
then
drop in another one
etc
thus
the onion chimes

here its just too moist
ive tried onion chimes for the last two years and it doestn work well 
many of the onions rotted
so
below is what i do now


i prepped the soil by adding a ton of compost plus an organic fertilizer
then i forked this all into the top layers of the soil
i never spade or till my soil
then i add a soaking of fish emulsion + molasses+ seaweed solution
then i let this sit for several weeks until
our onions arrive from dixondale farms in texas 
they are sweet 1015 and granex and red onions
they are sweet and usually dont burn your eyes when you cut them
we also get our leeks from them
our garlic i get locally from an organic garden place
then
ms b comes out to the garden with me as described in this blog from november
i poke holes in the ground six inches apart to plant the onions
ms b drops in an onion in each hole
then
she covers the hole up
we watered the new onions with the solution above
then
every two weeks i added the solution above to feed the onions
the area is kept on a dripper
when the bulbs appear i stop applying fertilizer

when the onions are ready to harvest the tops will just fall over
then you can pull them up and lay them on the ground to dry out
except 
at least for this year it is just too wet
so
plan x is done


i harvested all the onions when most were ready to be pulled
we started with 80 onions
we have over the last 5 months harvested and eaten a lot of them
in salads soups stews etc or gave them to family and friends
we probably had about 30 left to harvest 
about half of them were this giant softball sized onions
they easily fit in my hand and are the size of half my shoe
i wear a size 12 shoe


while in our garden i usually wash and trim up the onions
the thrown away parts are added to our compost pile
also 
i harvested about 10 leeks that day
this is the first time i have planted leeks
i use them in soups stews and beans
also
i harvested my garlic which didnt do as well this year
they developed brown rust a fungal infection that inhibits the growth of the garlic
it doesnt prevent you from using them though
i usually dry the garlic out but since its so wet i processed them as below


here is ms b proudly holding this softball sized sweet texas onion she planted almost 5 months ago
now
if i could just get her to take a bite out of the onion
granddaddy is all she said

i will add that these onions are so sweet that you could just take a bite out of it

after taking the onions and the leeks and the garlic home
i cleaned each of them up
dropped them in a blender
chopping them up like you would if you used your kitchen knife

our onion yield was 15 quarts of chopped onions
our leek yield was 3 quarts of leeks
we have about that much leek still left to harvest
our garlic yield was 3 quarts of garlic

so 
when we need onions or leeks or garlic for soups etc we just break off what we need and drop it in the pot 

so thats how we process our alliums ie onion leek garlic crops

maybe next year we can get mr hudson to help ms b plant them
mr n proably wont be old enough
he can just play with the worms while we plant

the organicgreen doctor