Vegmonkey and the Mrs.

Rather than take loads of photos again I’m just going to post a ‘how to link’ to last years stringing efforts below:

http://vegmonkey.co.uk/how-to-string-onions/

It took us about an hour to do, with the Mrs doing the tying and myself on the stripping (of undried stem!) and cutting of roots. Most of the bulbs had dried out really nicely but a few were not quite there as they were underneath. Out of the 4 ties, 3 have gone in the shed where it is quite cool, the rest are hung on our old wooden kitchen door, adding to the rustic feel…or something! They will be eaten second.

The first ones to go into the pot will be the ones on which the stems split and fell apart – they got a sudden decapitation and went in the ‘Onion Bag.’

These are the Japanese ones planted last year and which overwintered…it will almost be time to put the next lot in! The maincrop onions will come out soon – I’ll probably give them until at least mid-Auguat though. Happy tying!

As the weather was relatively nice over the weekend, we took the opportunity to harvest the Japanese Senshyu Onions that have been growing since about October time. As usual, I bought too many, but the ones that did make it into the ground, have grown huge. I think they are much bigger than any onions planted in March have ever been. Must be something to do with the weather…

As the Mrs. showed how much of an expert she is at stringing onions last year, (http://vegmonkey.co.uk/how-to-string-onions/). I think she’s ‘really looking forward’ to getting stuck into it. We couldn’t find a decent explanation of how to do it online, so decided to write our own. I think it did the job as it got a lot of comments, but I don’t think it became the definitive weblink I wanted it to be!

Amyway, the onions, red and white, have been laid out on wire inside the old cold frame that we built from an old Argos wardrobe when we first moved into the new house. They should be happy drying in there until the stems start to die off and go brown – usually about 7 days, then we can string them. The difficulty with doing them straightaway is that the stems are too thick and if they are left too long, the stems tend to tear when they are tied, which isn’t ideal for stringing.

I’m quite pleased we’ve found a use for the cold frame, it has been pretty redundant of late, after the ’slug hotel’ inspectorate awarded it 5 ***** for comfort and warmth, I have been reluctant to put anything in it. It doesn’t get a huge amount of light either.

Potato update: It seems they were just ready. The picture above shows the bed I cleared. The bag they are in weighs about 25kg…that is under a quarter of what we will recieve in harvest. Innovative potato recipes anyone? I left two rows in as a bit of an experiment to see if the scab gets any worse after the plants fully die off, I predict it will.

Well it’s how the Mrs does it anyway. I’m pretty crap at it if i’m honest, they end up sort of hanging off the string in no real semblance of order. I’m gonna write ‘we ‘ though cos i was there taking pictures! I’ve been meaning to post this for ages as there really isn’t a definitive guide online that i can find, so here it is!!! It’s a shame, they looked quite nice laid out on the wire rack.

We started with a piece of string that was about a metre and a half long and tied the ends together. We then hung it from the shed door so that we could easily tie the onions onto it.

The first one is the hardest. The neck needs to be wound in a figure of eight about 4 or 5 times, and then pushed down towards the bottom of the string. This will be the base of the string. Any surplus ends can be trimmed off when the string has been finished.

The second onion is wound in a figure of eight about 3 times, opposite the first one. This enables the onions to be evenly spaced around the string, rather than in one long line, and wil fit more on. I think it looks very ‘traditional’ like this, and looks great hanging off the kitchen door.

The third up to the last are the same. They need to be carefully wound round as shown below and pushed down towards the rest. Be careful not to leave any gaps as they will show up later.

I think we tied on about 25 – 30 onions onto the one string, which means they are now compact and easy to store…much better than bagging or tying them individually. The pic below show the finished onion string, tied before we trimmed all the rubbish and loose ends off, and after. I hope this has been useful, please leave a comment if it has…or even if it has not!