Onions

[Holly Daze]

Good morning all!

Please can you advise me. This year is the first time I have grown onions from sets. I had loads of them and planted them. They are all now the size of medium onions. I have read that you need to wait until the stems go brown before harvesting. My question is whether they are edible at this stage. I will have far too many to eat/ keep and could do with some now. I will attempt to upload an image for you. Thank you.

[Penellype]

Yes they are definitely edible, although you may find that the top parts of some of the outer layers are rather tough and papery even though they are white. I have often harvested mine at this stage as they tend to get white rot at my allotment. If you have too many, chop them and freeze them - you can cook them from frozen, which works very well and they keep for ages.

For harvesting to store, when the tops bend over you can ease them out of the ground to break the roots, and they will then start to go brown. Bring them under cover as they do so (unless you have some reliably dry weather) and leave them on a rack or similar with plenty of air until the leaves are completely dry. I then store mine in strings, which I hang from the rafters in my garage. Stringing onions is easy - break off the dead leaves about 2 inches above the top of the bulb and cut off the roots, being careful not to damage the growth plate (if this is damaged they will rot). Peel off any mud and very loose skin. Make a loop of string and hang it where you can easily reach it. Then weave a strong looking leaf stub of one of the onions through the loop of string at the bottom from back to front, round the back of the loop and back through the loop, pulling it tight so the onion hangs just below the bottom of the loop. Then weave the leaves of the remaining onions through the string so they rest on the onion below. Hung in a well aired cool place they will keep for months like this.

[Holly Daze]

Thank you so much Penellype for your detailed response. It is very helpful. Have a great day.