How to properly store onions at home

Housewives sometimes show amazing ingenuity when choosing ways to store onions. Some hang it in old-fashioned nylon tights, some weave nets from straw, and some put it in boxes made of cedar wood. But no one has invented a universal method: they say they are all interesting and correct in their own way. Let’s figure out which options should be preferred, and which ones are better not to even consider.

Neither a summer resident nor a true fan of city life, for whom the word “garden bed” sounds like a curse, can refuse to stock up on onions for the winter. Everyone needs this “golden reserve” to spend it left and right in soups, salads and various hot dishes. When there is not a single onion left at home, it is tantamount to a natural disaster.

So, to keep this easy-to-eat vegetable fresh at home, start by choosing a variety that lasts a long time.

The best onion varieties for winter storage

Only late-ripening varieties are suitable for storage. They are easy to identify by their appearance: dense, thick scales and a pungent taste. Multilayer “chain mail” is necessary for this vegetable as protection against rot and pests. Here are the varieties that, according to breeders, have the longest dormant period:

Arzamas.

Rostov local.

Sturon.

Timiryazevsky.

Strigunovsky.

The farmer is late.

DRYING

This process is quite long, it takes at least two weeks. During this time, you will be able to reject all questionable specimens. If a summer resident has harvested his own harvest, then he needs to “follow the technology” at a very early stage. Do it right.

“As soon as you dig up the onions, leave them in the garden for 2 hours, and then clear them of soil,” advises agronomist Vitaly Sereda. – The sun’s rays will disinfect and dry it. Then move your harvest to the barn or attic, scatter the heads in a thin layer and leave it like that for a week. During this time, the bulbs can be sorted out and the bad ones discarded. The remaining ones will be stored without problems for up to 6 months at home.

When an onion is properly dried, it has three main characteristics: a smooth and dry head, no signs of spoilage, and a dry, closed neck.

In what container is it better to store onions in winter?

Bulbs can be stored in a heated room in several ways:

– in boxes, both wooden and plastic;

– in cardboard boxes;

– in wicker baskets;

– in linen or cotton bags;

– in paper bags;

– in polypropylene meshes;

– in nylon stockings.

Some people don’t use containers at all. They weave braids from dried onions and hang bunches of vegetables from the ceiling. This is how our great-grandfathers kept their “gold reserves”. This is how some rural residents still keep it. When there is no separate room for storing blanks in a city apartment, intertwined onions, of course, are not hung for everyone to see – it is not aesthetically pleasing. But there are housewives who manage to successfully fit these bunches into the kitchen ambience even in a small city apartment.

At what temperature and where is it better to store onions?

Onions can be stored in an apartment only if the room temperature does not exceed +22 degrees and the humidity does not exceed 65-70%.

“Few people now put onions in the refrigerator, but there are some,” notes vegetable base specialist Vasily Frolov. – You need to understand that the bulbs will “live” there for no more than a month: then they will become damp and spoil. Therefore, if you haven’t had time to finish eating the vegetables from the refrigerator, peel them, chop them, put them in plastic bags and put them in the freezer. At minus 15 it is much more reliable to store them than at plus 4. It must be packaged in small portions, since repeated freezing of the product is unacceptable.

It is always convenient to keep a small amount of onions in the drawer of the lower kitchen cabinet. As a rule, these sets are provided with special pallets. In such home conditions, root vegetables remain fresh for up to two months, are stored very compactly, and most importantly – at hand.

The balcony is also a convenient place, but the bulbs will do well there until the temperature drops below minus 1 degree. Up to minus 5 degrees, root vegetables can be stored in boxes that stand on thick foam and covered with a blanket.

— If your onions are stored on the balcony, sprinkle them with calcined sand or chalk. Then there will be no proliferation of microorganisms,” Frolov clarifies.

Vegetables do best in the pantry. There you can put them in boxes and hang them on the walls. The main thing is to keep onions away from apples, potatoes, beets and carrots. Its neighbors can only be dried berries, pumpkin, garlic and dried herbs.