Around our house we eat between one hundred and one hundred and fifty pounds of onions a year and probably five pounds of garlic.
Onions and garlic are members of the allium family along with leeks and chives. We prefer yellow onions and soft-neck garlic. Yellow onions are sweeter and serve as good all-purpose onions. We us at least one large onion every night in fixing dinner, sometimes two. Soft-neck garlic is milder and has more cloves per bulb than hard neck. It's also more readily available in this region.
I thought I planted plenty of onions back in February, but we've been using them as green onions so much I ended up only harvesting about a dozen mature onions. Next year I'll plant a lot more.
Garlic is planted in the fall for spring and summer harvest. I intended to plant garlic last fall, but we ended up eating the bulbs I'd bought for seed. I look forward to getting a sizable garlic crop planted this fall. The garlic available from seed sellers online is too expensive, more expensive than just buying garlic locally, especially counting shipping costs. Local garden centers are shifting their focus away from planting this time of year and don't carry garlic for fall planting. I've found that the best alternative is to buy garlic from our local organic food store that hasn't been treated with anything. I put it in the refrigerator for two weeks before time to plant, which triggers the cloves to sprout.
We also use lots of garlic and onion powder, but I don't plan on making my own.
Stephen
Onions and garlic are members of the allium family along with leeks and chives. We prefer yellow onions and soft-neck garlic. Yellow onions are sweeter and serve as good all-purpose onions. We us at least one large onion every night in fixing dinner, sometimes two. Soft-neck garlic is milder and has more cloves per bulb than hard neck. It's also more readily available in this region.
I thought I planted plenty of onions back in February, but we've been using them as green onions so much I ended up only harvesting about a dozen mature onions. Next year I'll plant a lot more.
Garlic is planted in the fall for spring and summer harvest. I intended to plant garlic last fall, but we ended up eating the bulbs I'd bought for seed. I look forward to getting a sizable garlic crop planted this fall. The garlic available from seed sellers online is too expensive, more expensive than just buying garlic locally, especially counting shipping costs. Local garden centers are shifting their focus away from planting this time of year and don't carry garlic for fall planting. I've found that the best alternative is to buy garlic from our local organic food store that hasn't been treated with anything. I put it in the refrigerator for two weeks before time to plant, which triggers the cloves to sprout.
We also use lots of garlic and onion powder, but I don't plan on making my own.
Stephen
All photos are copyright 2017, Stephen P. Scott
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