Onion Harvest

They make you cry. Many people do not like them. They are a staple for making food taste good. Meet the onion. I love to grow onions. I prefer to plant the little tiny starts as opposed to the bulb sets. I've just found that mine tend to grow better and bigger when I plant them that way. This year was no different and I ended up with some monsters! Growing an huge onion really isn't super practical because one of them will last you for at least five different meals. They still bring a smile to my face and I generally use most of them for canning my salsa and spaghetti sauce. My salsa recipe calls for 16 onions and I can usually get away with about half that many.

This year I decided to try to braid my onions. I was a little intimidated at first but after looking at some tutorials online, I discovered it was basically up to you however you wanted to do it. If you know how to do a simple braid in someone's hair then you can braid onions together.

These are the steps we followed:

Please ignore the weeds!

1. Wait for the tops of your onions to flop over and then you know they are ready to be harvested. Do not pull them from the tops, otherwise they will snap off and you won't have anything to braid!

2. Spread the onions on a table in the shade out of the rain and sun but where there is good ventilation. A covered patio is a great place. Make sure they are in a single layer. Let them sit for about a week. This allows them to dry a little and makes the tops more pliable for braiding.

3. Braid them together beginning with the largest onions on the bottom and adding in smaller onions on up. I braided in about seven to nine onions. Tie them with twine or strong string and hang in a cool dry place.

It is really that simple! I love the way it looks and it makes my storage room look so festive!