Onions, Onions......Do We Have Lots of Onions!!!

This weekend we harvested our onion crop.   The weeds pretty much take over the garden at this time of the year, and I figured I better get those onions out of the weedy, damp onion patch.   It seemed like a really nice day, so Harold and I began the harvest.  About 1/2 way through the process, it suddenly began to rain - and it didn't just rain, it came down in sheets while we ran to the house.   Of course, after that, when the sun finally came out again, we picked some more, this time in a little bit of mud.   Sure enough, 15 minutes later, another rain shower passed through and quickly went away, leaving us wet again.  And the onions, too!   We decided to give up the harvesting on Saturday, and continue on Sunday.   Today it was really nice and sunny, so we finished the harvest.   I ended up with about 12 big boxes of onions, about 120 lbs!  For the next several days I will be airing the boxes of onions in the sun and also on the porch (when the sun gets too hot).   The dirt should come off the onions easily as they dry.   We will sell some at market, keep plenty for ourselves, and give some away.   I will be cleaning and sorting the onions every day, taking off dry layers until they look real nice for market. 
     So what do I do with all those onions?  I use onions in just about everything I cook!  I also like to put lots of onions in my potato-cheese filled pierogies.   And there's nothing better than onions fried up with potatoes to go with an omelet.   Years ago I went to a German restaurant in New Ulm Minnesota.   There was a German saying stenciled all around the room in big letters, with an English translation underneath.   It basically said this:

"Of this all good cooks have one opinion,
No savory dish without an onion"

I always think of this restaurant when I cook with onions, and their little German saying about onions.
     If stored in a cool place, these onions will last us until next February or March.  I usually grow some sweet onions for salads and making fried onion rings (we have a good sized box full of those, too).  But yellow onions store the best, as compared to red or white onions.

Here I am holding a couple handfuls of freshly dug onions.

Some of the boxes of onions drying on a table in the sun.

 

Even bigger boxes drying!

  

A close-up of some of these big beauties!