Root cellaring onions and garlic

Our cooperative garden is in the throes of summer planting, which means up with the alliums!

So, when you buy onions in the grocery store, they’ve been dried and cellared to keep well in a big pile stacked on top of each other at the store. Our grandmas all likely had root cellars, where you stash veggies from the garden and keep them for months until you’re ready to use them. Lots of stuff keeps well in cool, dry conditions: onions, beets, garlic, potatoes, etc.

There are plenty of ways to successfully dry and keep onions and garlic, but I ran across this idea years ago (and now I can’t remember where, shoot!) and thought it sounded fun: pantyhose! Yeah, sure, you can braid them or just throw them in a basket (after drying them for a few days), but what the hell else am I going to do with the stash of pantyhose leftover from proms, early days of young professionalism and other hide-your-bare-legs events?

Tying knots was easy in the first leg because you just thread the empty side of the pantyhose through to make a knot.

Filling the other leg required making a bigger noose and just feeding the string of knotted onions through it to complete the knot. I paused a few times and ended up pulling it through the wrong way (which never knotted, just pulled back to original position). Just play with it; you’ll figure out how to make the knot.

I’m going to hang these in the basement, though you can hang them anywhere that’s cool and dark (the back of a closet or the corner of the laundry room maybe?) so they have air around them completely (not hugged by clothing or other stuff). Cut them out of their pouches as needed for cooking.

Fare thee well, professional office attire. Hello onions for the summer.

Comments

[Megan]

I did this last year here in Eugene Oregon. Its a great idea and it helped for a little while, but it is so damp here, I ended up with a giant slimy sock. (Given I did just leave them outside). It works great, but definitely make sure to keep in a very dry place! And dont let them freeze, they dont like that make either.