Know your onions

Get the most out of your ready-to-harvest onions, and sow some more now for next spring

- Bob Flowerdew

ALTHOUGH shallots, chives and even leeks can be used as decent substitutes in a few dishes, onions are an essential component of our kitchen garden plantings. Basically, we need onions almost every day of the year, so it’s fortunate that they can be simply stored for so long.

By now, sets and seedlings started in spring should have grown and matured, and their tops died down in the heat of summer. So hopefully, a magnificent crop has been harvested and can be transferred to a dry place for storing.

Providing onions are kept dry, they will keep. They can even stand the cold fairly well. Indeed, in the past, you’d see strings of onions tied outside buildings, sheltering under eaves. Inside a dry shed (preferably very dry, and well ventilated) is safer, and maybe hanging from the ceiling. Although woven strings of onions (or just bunches) look charming, they are work intensive and not ideal, as they are not airy enough.