Storing & Preserving Onions

It's February and the pantry continues to provide. On a good year our onions will last us until fresh onions come in during the summer. Then we'll enjoy fresh, uncured onions to last us til cured, storage onions come back in season.

Uncured onions need refrigeration. Cured storage onion varieties keep in the pantry. You want to make sure when stocking the pantry to choose good storage varieties, which will be noted in seed catalogs, or by your farmer. In our garden we grown Red Wing and Cortland (yellow) types. After harvest, onions are laid out on screens to let their neck dry down and skins cure, to seal off routes for moisture and pathogens that may negatively affect storage.

Sourcing Our Onions

For our local food plan our onions come from our personal garden, in our Cedar Crate Farm CSA boxes and the farmers market. Since we use a lot in regular cooking, and like 20-30lbs in the pantry I usually end up seeing 5lb bags at the end of the market season I need to snatch up extra of...never enough really!

Onions are one of those things you could truly source 100% locally, with a little effort.

Alliums in the lazy susan - garlic & onions.

Stocking the Pantry

We keep onions in mesh bags and/or in baskets in the pantry (pictured, as with garlic). We restock our small basket in the lazy susan from the pantry. Keep your onions in a cool, dark location. If you have a spot that is 40-50° that's great, we just keep them in the coolest spot in the basement (probably 60-65°). Warm temps and extra humidity can cause sprouting.

Give potatoes some space, as onions can cause them to sprout faster!

When they do start to sprout, or aren't keeping how you like...or you have too many...preserve them to reduce loss.

Onions in the dehydrator. Works great for fresh or 
cured onions, red or yellow.

Dehydrate those onions! This is my preferred way to take care of sprouting onions. Dehydrated onions are so easy to use - sometimes it's just lovely to not have to chop onions! We make plenty of soups and stock, so they get used up. Dehydrated onions can also be powdered. Dehydrated onions keep for years in well sealed containers.

In the Freezer

Stick onions in the freezer for quick prep, or as a method of preservation. Dice your onions, lay out on a cookie sheet, once frozen transfer to your container of choice. A quart container in the kitchen freezer, for easy prep. Vacuum seal bags for the chest freezer Kept like this you'll probably want to use them up in 6-12 months.

Onions can also be pickled and fermented, if that's your jam!

. . . . .

Our onions are holding up well this year and we may just end up going through all of them before I need to preserve any! I don't mind less work on that end either. Since we did so much more preserving last year we ended up with less in the pantry. Planting many more this year!!

Holler if you have any great onion tips, have any questions on how you can keep more local onions, or need to find sources!!

Leeks, frozen like onions.