onions - Common Sense Home

Growing Onions From Seed – 5 Tips for a Great Harvest

February 16, 2016 by Laurie Neverman 6 Comments

Growing onions from seed can seem a little intimidating, but it's really not much fuss at all. For years I just settled for whatever onion sets were available from the hardware store, but I've become an onion seed believer. Now my first seeds planted for the season are my onions, and the boys and I grow several hundred of these beauties every year, many of which go into homemade salsa and spaghetti sauce.

In this post we'll cover how to grow onions from seed, picking the right onion varieties for your area, onion seeds versus onion sets, and five tips for a great onion harvest. [Read more…]

The 5 Easiest Vegetables to Store

April 15, 2015 by Laurie Neverman 4 Comments

In this post I'll discuss the easiest vegetables to store and how to store them. These crops have all moved onto my “must plant” list because they require little or no processing and last reliably in storage for months. I also have a quick video of our awesome new root cellar makeover. August and the boys did a great job adding a ton of storage to the root cellar under our front porch. [Read more…]

Onion Pudding

December 28, 2014 by Laurie Neverman 28 Comments

2014 blessed us with an onion harvest like I have never seen before. Red, yellow and white onions were hauled out of the garden by the bucketful to fill the shelves of the root cellar. The white onions, a Vidalia type, were so sweet that when my sister visited at Thanksgiving, she said they were the first garden onion she'd consider eating like an apple. While nearly every savory dish we enjoy includes onions in one form or another, I wanted to add some new onion focused recipes to the menu. I started digging through my favorite veggie focused cookbooks, and came across a recipe for onion pudding in “Too Many Tomatoes, Squash, Beans, and Other Good Things: A Cookbook for When Your Garden Explodes“.

What's onion pudding? Think rich and creamy onions with a hint of cheesy goodness. The high oven temp gives a bit of a crispy edge while leaving a smooth center. It's a wonderful side dish with any meat, and a great complement to a salad or other fresh veggie dish. To make the most of this dish, I highly recommend taking the time to grate your Parmesan cheese fresh. The flavor and texture is so much better than the green can product with wood pulp added to prevent caking. And since Parmesan is a hard cheese, it lasts a really long time in the fridge, especially if you vacuum seal any leftover chunks. I usually bake mine in a nine inch glass pie plate, which makes 8 slices. [Read more…]

How to Harvest, Cure and Store Onions – Root Cellaring, Braiding, Dehydrating and Freezing

October 3, 2013 by Laurie Neverman 12 Comments

You can enjoy home grown onions for months after the growing season has finished with just a little extra time and effort. In this post we'll cover onion harvest, curing onions, and several different onion storage methods.

Which Onions are Best for Storage?

I usually grow onions from onion sets (the little mini onion bulbs). Out of the red, white and yellow varieties I've tried, the yellow Stuttgarter Riesen has been the best keeper. Stuttgarter Riesen is a large, deep golden-yellow onion with firm white flesh. The reds and whites I've tried have not kept as well, so I usually use them first. My friend, Tami, said that the onions she started from seed were much more solid and less prone to rotting than the ones that she started from sets. The Vegetable Gardener's Bible recommends Stockton Reds for storage. I've grown them, and they store fairly well, but the Stuttgarters store better. He also recommends the varieties Copra and Prince. [Read more…]