onions

[Guest guest]

To help stop the tears, cut the onion root side first. I am not sure why this

works but it does.

 

Sue

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Very cool! i've never tried to grow onions, other than scallions.

 

You can slice up your onions, and I mean a LOT of onions, and throw them in the crockpot with a stick of butter. (Yes, i said a STICK.) Fill that sucker up to the top! Let them cook all day on low until the melt down into golden brown caramelized goodness. then you can pack them into little bags and freeze them. Just take one out when you want to add it to a soup, stew, etc. On low, it might take as long as a full day to caramelize. But it is sooooooo worth it. I do this when I have a big bag of onions that are starting to go bad. It's a good way to use up a LOT of onions in a hurry. I don't know how you normally make your caramelized onions, but this method is very good! I've done it with garlic occasionally too.

 

Other than that, the only thing I can think of is putting them in the dehydrator and turning them into soup/stew bits. It seems a shame to do that with the fancy onions. let us know what you come up with. I know you'll have a great idea!

 

Cyndi

 

 

 

In a message dated 9/11/2008 10:18:13 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, stringweaver writes:

 

 

I didn't know we could send pictures to the group! Thanks especiallyfor the Cardinal picture, I really miss those since I've moved west ofthe rockies.Here's yesterday's onion harvest.... the big one, there's nothing toscale it to in the picture, it's about 7 inches across and must weighwell over 1 1/2 pounds. I think it would be cool to stuff it for adinner party. I have a red one just as large. Most are going to beabout 6 to 10 ounces I think. After they've dried for a week or twoI'll trim and sort them and weigh them.I have lots of long keeping yellow Copra and red Zeppelin, which willgo in the basment for winter use. I also have lots of not goodkeepers, flat white italian Cipollines and red Tropeo. I wonder if Ican make up pints and pints of caramelized onion and freeze them?I'll make several onion tarts and freeze those, though I'm fastrunning out of room in my freezer. Can you freeze french onion soup?Other ideas?Ellen-- "You never can tell with bees." Winnie-the-Pooh

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[Guest guest]

On Fri, Sep 12, 2008 at 10:08 AM, <cyndikrall wrote:

> Very cool! i've never tried to grow onions, other than scallions.

 

I've had terrific results with onions ever since I started buying

starts, rather than sets. Starts are pencil sized onion seedlings-if

you've got space and light you can grow them yourself, but they need

to be started in december for april planting. I get mine from

Dixondale farms. They arrive in mid april, I go out in the garden,

poke holes in the ground about 6 inches apart and 3 to 4 inches deep

and drop in the starts, rain fills in the holes. They need a good

amount of water, fertilization and weeding. The Copras keep like

rocks in my basement for months-I'm still using them in late spring,

and then I can thin the new plants for spring and summer onions.

 

> You can slice up your onions, and I mean a LOT of onions, and throw them in

> the crockpot with a stick of butter. (Yes, i said a STICK.) Fill that sucker

> up to the top! Let them cook all day on low until the melt down into golden

> brown caramelized goodness. then you can pack them into little bags and

> freeze them. Just take one out when you want to add it to a soup, stew, etc.

> On low, it might take as long as a full day to caramelize.

 

Oh yum! I found a similar recipe,using olive oil instead of

butter-and it said 12 hours on low-but start checking after 8 hours.

I'll do a batch of small ones whole and a batch of sliced. My

favorite way to cook beans is to caramelize onions, add roasted red

pepper and frozen beans and let them all cook together. As soon as

peppers get red ripe I'll buy dozens from the local stand, roast them

and freeze. Green beans will be a snap this winter, no need to cook

the onions or peppers. Caramelized onions, stuffed between the skin

and bird makes a terrific roast chicken. Toss them in pasta, on

potatoes or winter squash, in stir fries, on sandwiches, baked in

paper with fish and peas, roasted with lamb and red currents, or with

pork and blackberry pickle. I think I can use several crockpots

worth. I'll try both the butter and olive oil versions.

 

> Other than that, the only thing I can think of is putting them in the

> dehydrator and turning them into soup/stew bits. It seems a shame to do that

> with the fancy onions. let us know what you come up with. I know you'll have

> a great idea!

 

no need to do that, I'll have onions in the basement. I read that

french onion soup freezes quite well (without the bread and cheese).

And I'll get some little tart pans and make individual onion quiches

to freeze for later... I'm going to run out of room in my freezer. I

have a friend interested in a party to make pierogies, stuffed with

onion, cheese and potato for freezing, so that will whittle down my

onion pile and the monster potato harvest I'm expecting in a week or

two.

 

mm, pierogies are the best winter comfort food. Slice cabbage and

onions thin, saute them in butter and add thawed pierogies. Best for

after skiing or shoveling, they're loaded with calories.

 

My crockpot will be full of tomatoes cooking down for sauce tomorrow,

I'll try onions sunday.

 

Ellen