Onions!!! Onions Everywhere!!!

This week we had an amazing garden harvest. We brought in a ton of sqaush and even a bit of potatoes, but our biggest harvest this week was onions. Now we grew quite a bit of onions, we always do because normally we don't get very big ones but this year HOLY COW!!

We had one of these weigh in at just about 2lbs, thats alot of onion!!!

With us getting our monsoon rains its time for the onion tops to start falling over so when my dear husband went down to the field to harvest for market having picked 20 of each variety, SuperStar, Yellow Candy and Red Candy Apple and then went back down with his sister that was visiting to get more, they came back with a couple of our black crates full of onions I was a bit shocked. Then he said there were still quite a bit more and decided that we would do that before breakfast on Sunday (today).

Well 30 mins of picking this morning and the back of our truck was like this.....

Not too bad right?? Well after we unloaded 13.5 crates full and layed them in my mother in laws camper trailer (the only place big enough that would keep them from getting wet in the rain) we are now swimming in onions, and there are still more down in the field. I love it!!!

So here is what we have now,

 the dinning table was folded down to its twin bed surface and filled,

the tile floor for the kitchen was covered,

and finally two of the four bunkbeds were covered.

They will be cured and ready for cutting stocks and roots off in just a few weeks and then they can go into crates to finish up drying but wow do we have onions. Its are first time with really good ones so I cant wait to try some onion blossoms and to make my own onion powder. I am also dehydrating rings and wedges to use in soups and breads. I really need to get more ideas for how to use them.

To think 5 years ago when I lived it the city I barely ever used onions, they never tasted good and made me cry. Well I still cry but love the taste, must be because they are MINE.

Come back soon and see what some of my experiments with the onions are.

Its Been Awhile...

Since I blogged last.

For many reasons but the biggest was my dear husband left for work the 5th of July and was gone for about 3 weeks. Prime time for leaving, as that's when the gardens are just starting to need weeded and harvested. Then when he did finally came back home we had tons of jobs waiting to be finished with the extra adult. I lived thru it thanks to having my father and my mother in law here.

In the 3 weeks he was gone we started getting our monsoons so the gardens are doing amazing. We have been battling amaranth, squash bugs and a couple cottontail rabbits. Other then those lovely annoyances we are doing well. I will be much better once my dogs dine on those cottontails!!! Those stinkers decided to chew thru not one line but 10-12 of our drip lines and all on the same side of the garden. It wasn't like it one day and then two days later when walking the garden looking for fresh tunnels I sunk in mud. They went thru and started going up each line all just before the end of the row. I am really hoping that it didn't damage my cucumbers or melons to bad and that they recover very quick.

Other then that life here at Serenity is moving along. We are back to the normal schedule of things, with the exception of my mother in law going back home for the fall. We loved having her here to visit with and I don't know what my kids are going to do having to stay home with me and the other siblings instead of getting their sleepover nights with Grandma.

We are now half way thru our market year and that means not too much longer for winter (scary thought since last winter was bad). We are starting to amend the rows we are done harvesting from before winter gets here so that spring is easier next year.We still have the plan of getting a greenhouse up and going but it may not be until a bit later then planned since we still have alot to do, for our personal fall/winter garden. Not to mention the processing to do with the produce from the garden that's coming now. I am looking forward to canning some of our own relish for the winter and tons of stewed tomatoes as that was amazing last year. We have already dehydrated over 2 gallons of summer squash for casseroles this winter with more still to go. I think after this morning I am going to be trying to dehydrate some onions this week. My next blog will explain why so check back soon.