Preserving Onions

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nolefanjon

nolefanjon

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Hello, friends. I hope everyone is having a great year so far. As I continue planning out my first garden, one of the issues I have stumbled upon is preserving our onions. I live in Florida, so the hot and humid climate causes onions to soil quickly. I was thinking of canning them, but I am not sure how to best do so. I am open to any suggestions you may have.

Thanks,
Jon
 
you can dehydrate them, that would require extra energy input in your climate, but it works well.
 
nolefanjon said:
Hello, friends. I hope everyone is having a great year so far. As I continue planning out my first garden, one of the issues I have stumbled upon is preserving our onions. I live in Florida, so the hot and humid climate causes onions to soil quickly. I was thinking of canning them, but I am not sure how to best do so. I am open to any suggestions you may have.

Thanks,
Jon
Click to expand...
Onions are one of my favorite veggies and I eat them frequently, raw and cooked. I have had many onions go soft if I didn't use them quickly enough, so I understand that they do not always last long enough.

Two ways that I have kept onions: frozen and dried/dehydrated.

Sometimes, when I know I am going to be using onions in something, I chop up a big bunch of them. Then I spread the pieces out on a cookie sheet and freeze them that way so that they are not clumped together. Then I bag them up and put them back into the freezer.
I have dehydrated onions in my dehydrator. I have also purchased dehydrated onions. If you do dehydrate onions, know that your whole house will smell like onions. Some people prefer to dehydrate them in an out building.
 
nolefanjon said:
Hello, friends. I hope everyone is having a great year so far. As I continue planning out my first garden, one of the issues I have stumbled upon is preserving our onions. I live in Florida, so the hot and humid climate causes onions to soil quickly. I was thinking of canning them, but I am not sure how to best do so. I am open to any suggestions you may have.

Thanks,
Jon
Click to expand...

I have made and pressure canned French onion soup which is great! What I do now is dry pack and pressure can them (sometimes with bell peppers). No liquid and pack as tight as you can! Same time as the recipe above.
 
I chop them coarse and fine and then freeze them in plastic.
 
Bacpacker said:
I have problems storing them for a long time. 6 months is about the best I get. Dehydrated and frozen are both solid ways to preserve them. We also throw small ones in jars with pickles when we make them. We loved jarred Pearl onions. We need to try making them sometime.
Click to expand...
I have grown heirloom varieties that were rated as long keepers. They have have very thin necks that harden off and seal the bulbs.

Ben
 
I always let mine die back, then pull them and air dry in my shop, then store in bread racks in the basement.
Do you leave yours hanging in the shed thru the winter? If so, I may build me a rack to hang them from in the shop and try that out
 
Bacpacker said:
I always let mine die back, then pull them and air dry in my shop, then store in bread racks in the basement.
Do you leave yours hanging in the shed thru the winter? If so, I may build me a rack to hang them from in the shop and try that out
Click to expand...

Yes we did.

A couple times , temps got down in the teens at night,
Few of them got a little mushy outside rings.
But we normally don't get that cold.

Try just a few and see how it goes.
Worked for us.

Jim
 
Since 2020 I've managed to keep a supply of white onions going- each year I plant more, as I use more. Yesterday I realised the bunches were beginning to turn and soften. I had them hanging in an outside room in the garage, (block wall) with good circulation. Spent the day sorting, slicing and freezing. Should have done it in the beginning; but I already have leek frozen and didn't want everything in the freezer in case the electricity went.
Because I dried and hung them all at the one time, I don't know which were grown in the poly, and which were grown outside. I'm guessing it doesn't matter, it's just the dampness here in Ireland.

Would I be better next season, storing any in the old dresser like I do the potatoes do you think?
 
Magpie said:
Since 2020 I've managed to keep a supply of white onions going- each year I plant more, as I use more. Yesterday I realised the bunches were beginning to turn and soften. I had them hanging in an outside room in the garage, (block wall) with good circulation. Spent the day sorting, slicing and freezing. Should have done it in the beginning; but I already have leek frozen and didn't want everything in the freezer in case the electricity went.
Because I dried and hung them all at the one time, I don't know which were grown in the poly, and which were grown outside. I'm guessing it doesn't matter, it's just the dampness here in Ireland.

Would I be better next season, storing any in the old dresser like I do the potatoes do you think?
Click to expand...
When I was a kid, my dad and his best friend had a huge garden and produce stand. They made wooden cabinets for onion, garlic, and potato storage. They were in a cinder block garage, dad always said the wood kept the moisture out! 🤔
 
My grandparents kept things like this in the basement. One set of grandparents had a basement entrance that was right off the kitchen. The door there kept the basement entrance cooler because of the basement being cooler. Onions were kept there. But this is also the grandparents who had the large bed of forever onions that grew back year after year.
 
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