Oh no! Sprouting Sweet Onions!

[digitS']

I think it is time for a casserole!

Not only the sweet onions but some of the spuds have sprouts again. Maybe one of these years I really will grow a late potato variety so I don't have this problem! I can't blame the sweet onions, tho'. I've already pushed them right past their "1 to 2 month" storage commitment.

I feel good about my ability to do that with the Walla Wallas and others ! It probably has to do with an arid environment and my willingness to treat them like the storage onions and cure them "hard!" They are out in a shady, dry spot for at least 3 weeks and then spent about that much time in the greenhouse after frosts began. I had to get them out of the greenhouse because of needing to water the bok choy in there. Humidity is likely to be the enemy but that shelf in the basement is pretty darn dry, too.

Ovation is my storage onion the last few years. I feel I'm getting away with something there, too ! Ovation is considered a sweet onion by the horticulturalists. Those may go right on thru winter with no real problem. Some of them, at least.

A casserole would be easy with a "cream of . . ." soup on the shelf. Buying about 6 cans at a time misleads me into thinking that it is always there but I become too good of a consumer at this time of year .

There's a pot of steak bones boiling on the stove right now with a bay leaf or 2 in there! Cheddar cheese and half & half in the fridge. With some of Jacques Pepin's "instant grits," that I hardly know what to do with. . . . Let's see if I can make my own "cream of . . ." soup and use up some of these sweet onions & spuds!

Steve

 

[NwMtGardener]

Gack, dont ruin that delicious sounding soup with grits!!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Ive had the same problems, Steve. Onions going bad and potatoes sprouting. Ive made 21 quarts of vegetable soup in the last three, mainly to address the potato problem but onions were used, plus I dont know how many pints of chicken broth, mainly to clean chicken carcasses out of my freezer but also to help with the onion problem. If I get 18 pints of chicken broth today, which I think I will, I think thats 67 pints of broth in the last month.

In the past Ive chopped onions and frozen them in the vacuum bags when they reach their shelf life but Ive got several bags left from last year. This year I either gave them away or used them.

 

[digitS']

I can keep up with a few sprouting at a time. We eat quite a few onions.

I can hardly imagine 67 pints of broth, Ridgerunner! That's in addition to 21 quarts of soup?!

My casserole was a bit soupy. I think I could have found something different to thicken between the veggies. Or, maybe just used nothing at all. (Probably better get back to a can of soup. )

I've suggested to DW that we might try chopped onions, frozen on a cookie sheet, then bagged. She knows nothing about this sort of thing - neither do I. I used the 4 that were sprouting and the remainder looks good for the moment. We have some red onions this winter - one called Red Beret. It was a long time to bulbing in the garden and looks like it will hold up well in storage.

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yeah, but 15 pints of broth went into the 21 quarts of soup.

 

[journey11]

Oh yeah, they'll freeze really well. And that's handy too.

 

[ninnymary]

Steve, due to some suggestions here, I bought a big bag of onions from Costco. I chopped them up and froze on cookie sheets then put in quart size bags. I LOVE it! They are so easy to use and I don't even have to defrost them. For breakfast, I'll chop some bacon and add some onions right away and cook them together, then add a couple of eggs. Last night I made a pot of beans and instead of putting in a half onion, I just grabbed a handful and toss them in. From now on, I will always have onions in my freezer.

Mary