Bringing the Onions In

Each year we purchase onion sets from Dixondale Farms in Carizzo Springs, TX.  I always order Yellow Granex, White, and Creole Onions.  This spring I planted three and a third rows of onions.  That was the least amount we've ever planted.  I think next year we'll go back to our normal order of 300 sets.  In this photo below, Some of the onions are telling you that they're ripe and ready to pull.

This is how they tell you.  The neck bends over and touches the ground.  When this happens, the onion is signaling to you that it's done growing.  I pull them up at this stage, but I don't bring them in for another day.

I will pull them and lay them on their side and allow the sun to gently cure them or dry them out for one day.  I only pulled the ones that have bent over.  The rest of the onions will be left to grow until they bend over.

But we're not done.  I bring them inside where I've converted the parlor into an onion curing room.  I have a drying rack brought in and have the fans running at full speed.  As the onions come inside, I'll cut off the "onion tails" and under the fan and lower humidity, the onions will begin to cure.  We still watch them closely.  Any that show signs of softening will be diced up and frozen for use in the kitchen later.

We'll go through these pretty quickly.  That's why we're going back to 300 plants for next year.

The Next Crop Planted in January

January marks another important time in the garden.  Time to plant onions.  On January 1st we plant tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant into seed pots for transplant into the garden later on.  On January 2nd, we plant onions directly into the garden.  In December I ordered from Dixondale Farms in Carizzo Springs, Texas two Short Day Samplers which consist of Creole Red Onions, Texas White Onions and Texas 1015 Sweet Onions.  I also ordered 1 bundle of Yellow Granex Onions.

They came in the mail quickly, and I opened the box.  Most of the onions are the diameter of a pencil or less.  They arrived healthy.

Planting the onions takes a little work.  First, you dig a trench four inches wide and four inches deep.  To this trench, you apply fertilizer.  I applied ammonium sulfate to the bottom of the trench at a rate of 1/2 cup per 10 linear feet.  You can see it in the bottom of the trench below.  

Then I covered the trench up.  Then I dug a shallow trench 6 inches on either side of the fertilizer trench and planted the onions 1 inch deep and 4 inches apart.  I use a nifty digging knife that my son Russ bought me.  It is sharp and wide and has measurements engraved on the blade.  It is perfect for planting onions.

It was an involved process and not kind to the back, but we got the job done.

When all was said and done, I had four and a half rows of onions planted in the garden!  I went back and counted them and found that I had just planted 296 onions!  That's what we planted last year.

Tricia let me know that we ran out of onions today from the crop we harvested from the summer.  She had to go to the grocery store and buy 3 lbs of onions to cook supper.  Well, we were able to eat off of the harvested onions for 6 1/2 months.  That's not too bad.  And we have onions in the ground that we'll harvest this summer.  I checked on them today and they are already putting on new growth.  It looks like they are well established.

Putting in the 2021 Onion Crop

Every year we order our onions from a company called Dixondale Farms in Carizzo Springs, Texas.  We love onions and plant a bunch of them - actually 3 bunches.  Each 'bunch' contains between 50-75 onions and they deliver around January 1st.  They come shipped in the mail and as soon as you get them you open them up.

Directions state to open the box and spread them out until ready to plant.  We ordered 1 bunch of Texas 1015 Sweet Onions and 2 bunches of Short Day Samplers.  The short day samplers contain Texas 1015 Sweet onions, white onions, and Creole onions.  The package contains a pamphlet called "Onion & Leek Planting Guide" and is full of good information on caring for your crop.  Additionally, throughout the growing seasons Bruce "The Onion Man" Frasier, sends out emails to assist you in growing a great crop.  I highly recommend Dixondale Farm Onions.  Click HERE for the Dixondale Farms website.

Saturday proved to be a nice day to get the onions in the ground.  I tied a string from fencerow to fencerow to make a straight row.

We use the "Back to Eden" gardening method so our soil is covered with four inches of wood chip mulch.  I rake back the mulch under the string with a rock rake to expose the soil.  Then we hoe up a narrow strip for planting and add chicken litter and biochar that has been inoculated with composted cow manure.

I use an old screwdriver as a planting tool.  I poke the screwdriver in the soil and plant an onion plant in the resulting hole, being very careful to only plant the onion plant 1 inch deep.  Any deeper and you run the risk of the plant not bulbing.

The onions are planted 4 inches apart.  In no time at all, the onions were all planted!  Five rows of beautiful onions.  

We will keep them watered and weeded and will nurture them until harvest time.  Can't wait!  Nothing like French Onion Soup,  Or caramelized onions!

For Crying Out Loud!

Do onions make you cry?  Sometimes when I cut them, tears do well up in my eyes.  Tonight, we had T-bone steaks from our bull calf cooked in a cast iron skillet covered in smothered onions and bell peppers.  So good.  The onions kicked the whole meal up a notch, making us almost have tears of joy as we ate.

We are all out of the homegrown onions we harvested this summer and have had to buy onions.  Well, no time like the present to begin thinking about next year's onion crop.  I buy onion plants from Dixondale Farms.  They are a family farming operation down in Carrizzo Springs, Texas that has been growing onions for 107 years.  (I think they have this onion-growing thing mastered!)  You can click that link above to check out their website.  I was looking at my catalog tonight and made my order.

Prior to five years ago, I had never really tried to grow onions, other than growing green onions.  Now I plant them every year.  The first thing you'll want to do is determine what type of variety works best in your area.  Since we are in the deep south, the Short Day Varieties work best for us.  I like to order the Short Day Sampler and I order two bundles.  Each bundle contains 50 - 75 onion plants.  The sampler is just that - in contains a mixture of 1015Y Texas Super Sweet, Texas Early White, and Red Creole onions.  It is very affordable at approximately $9 per sampler bundle.

I receive them in early to mid-January and get them in the ground shortly thereafter.  I have to give positive reviews to Dixondale Farms.  If you order from them, you can receive an email newsletter called "The Onion Patch" that keeps you up to date with proper care of onion plants to guarantee a bumper crop.  They also have onion recipes like the one I cut & pasted below:

Wow!  I have to try this.  I love a good grilled cheese sandwich, but adding grilled onions and mushrooms to it?  Goodness gracious!  Does that sound great?!  Can't wait to try it...

Do Onions Make You Cry?

When the tops of the onions turn slightly yellow, bend and fall over, they are sending a signal to you that it is time to harvest them.  This year we planted three bundles of Short Day Samplers that consist of Texas 1015 Sweet, Creole Red, and White onions.  The onions got off to a very bad start.  Our can got into the garden and proceeded to dig up an entire row of freshly planted onions.  I replanted them, but a bunch of them had already dried out.  Oh well, we got some to harvest.  In the photo below you can see that they have fallen over.

I pulled them up and laid them on top of the hay.  This allows them to dry in the sun for a day or two.  Unfortunately, it had just rained, and it was very hot and humid.  I'm not sure how much "drying" is going to take place.

After a couple of days, I went back to the garden to cut off the tops and put the onions in crates for further curing.  Here is a Texas Sweet 1015:

Here is a white onion.  These actually did the best this year.  Not many of the Texas Sweets survived.  Too bad, as those are my favorites.  The Creoles' bulbs are smaller than the others.

After I snipped off the onion tops, I loaded the onions into our garden wagon.  I'll bring these inside to continue drying in lower humidity.

Our yield of onions was noticeably smaller than in previous years.  I attribute that to THE CAT, a very wet growing season, and I did lose some to rot.  In fact, some of the smaller Creole onions are soft right now.  I'll have to watch them closely.  If the onions don't dry properly, I'll have to quickly chop them and freeze them so that they don't all go bad on me.  We love onions and although our 2019 crop wasn't exactly up to par, we'll try again next year!  We'll not cry over the onions... well, at least not until we cut them up to cook with them.