Sorting your crops into good keepers and bad keepers is key to long storage – old fashioned smarts! Separate out the ones that are damaged and therefore wont keep, from the ones that will. This makes the most of your crop – using up the ones that wont last first and keeping the keepers in good nick for longer without the risk of rot spreading. One bad apple really does spoil the bunch.
Find out which onion is a keeper (or not) with this simple test. Hold the onion by the leaves, and if it bends at the neck it’s a keeper.
If it doesn’t bend, it wont store.
Trim the tops off the ones that wont store, pile them into a basket and bring them into the kitchen for using first. Perfect timing considering all the preserving that’s going on at the mo. If you’ve got a heap, perhaps a batch of caramelised onions is on the cards.
I store my onions under the deck, out of the sun and in the breeze. I love looking at them when I’m in the kitchen. A years supply of onions makes me feel like I’ve hit the jackpot!
If I have time I string them up, otherwise I trim the tops off and bag them up in onion sacks, hanging them off strong hooks under the deck.