The Family Table: Keep a Running Jar of Onions

When I was a little girl and heard the phrase "running jar of onions" I was pretty sure I had no idea what it meant, it was just something the older folks said. In my imagination of course I pictured a jar of onions running away from someone chasing it. 😂  

In thinking about it now, it's probably what inspired me later in life to turn fruits and vegetables into cartoons.

I grew up in the 1960's with grand parents in my daily life that used language that many of us don't use today.  Their language developed out of how they did things in their day. Long before the days of rushing off to the grocery store for this or that, and even into the days of the Great Depression when you had to learn to "make do", if you hadn't already been making do.

As it turns out, keeping a running jar of onions means exactly what it sounds like.  It means saving every little scrap of onion, green onion tops, onion skins & onion ends, and letting them dry out either naturally, in a warm oven or with a dehydrator. Doing this every time you use fresh onions & sticking the odds & ends pieces into a jar until it's full.  Once it's full, they're ground down to powder either using a mortar and pestle or any type of modern appliance like a little Bullet blender. 

Voila - fresh, home dried onion powder to be used in all sorts of recipes to add a savory, deep level of umami flavor to any dish without having access to fresh onions. I use one single jar for all onion scraps (red, yellow, sweet, etc.) so my onion powder has an amazing flavor that store bought onion powder can't even come close to. I discovered the joy of making my own seasoning blends several years ago and onion powder is a staple ingredient so I make my own quite often. I've even been known to buy extra onions at the local market, just to make my own onion powder. 

It's not lost on me that if I were writing this 100 years ago in 1925, most folks would think I'd lost my marbles since this was a completely normal, every day thing many wives and mothers and grandmothers were doing already. It would be along the same lines as writing a step by step article telling folks how to brush their hair, or tie their shoes.  

Over the years society has traded "making do" with convenience and simple things like drying your own veggies and herbs became a thing of the past for most people.   

I have a lot of little things like this I do these days that started out as a simple challenge for me to try, to see if I could actually make do & save on the grocery budget the way they used to.  Some of those things became so enjoyable to me that they're just now a part of the way my kitchen is run. 

Thanks for stopping by. I sure hope this has blessed you in some way. 😊 Please feel welcome to leave a comment or question. 

Garden 2024 Update #14: Season's End (almost!)

Seven months ago I began my garden updates with some big ideas for 2024.  In that post, exactly 7 months ago today, I mentioned how I was spending some concerted effort with things that I haven't previously had much success with.  Sweet potatoes and onions from seed. Well the onions were a complete flop just like before, since the squirrels and chipmunks just absolutely love young onions, and ate them all. I won't be trying that again, I'll just get my onions from the local farmer's market instead. The sweet potatoes on the other hand, are doing fantastic. 

Starting with slips I grew & then transfered to jars of water, I ended up with 4-6 slips in each 20 gallon grow bag.  They seemed to struggle most of the first half of the season but then when the intense heat of the summer showed up, they took off like mad.  I suppose that makes sense considering sweet potatoes are actually a tropical crop.  They did excellent in this location too, so my plans for next year will be to grow them here in the same place.  Possibly in grow bags again, or possibly in a raised bed along this side of the sand area. I love the way raised beds make the growing space so organized and tidy, so I really think this area needs one of those to go toward my goal of beautifying my growing space.  

Another crop that did really well for me this year were jalapenos. I discovered Cowboy Candy a few years ago and it became an instant hit with the entire family as well as many friends. I never seem to make enough for it to last more than a couple of months (in addition to all the jars I give away in gift baskets) so this year's plan was to make at least twice as much!  I like to mix up the peppers 1/2 & 1/2 with jalapenos and sweet peppers, to dial the heat down a little and that works out perfect for everyone.

Overall this year, I had some pretty wonderful successes with garlic, basil, mint, lemon balm, peppers, carrots, blackberries, apples, potatoes, tomatoes and even my cucumbers that got flooded out far too early in the season.  Next year I'll be dialing it in even more, and focus more on what grows well in my wee garden.  I'll still make room for experiments but after many years of trying out new things, trying new spaces to see what grows best, where, I think I've finally sorted all of that out.  

While I haven't harvested the sweet potatoes yet, those are on the list to clear out over the next couple of weeks along with all the rest of the tomato and pepper plants and then mulch a ton of maple leaves for topping off all the beds for winter, and putting the garden to bed. I plant my garlic on Halloween, and this year I'm going to plant twice as much as in years prior, since we always run out long before the season is over. 

It's been a really good growing season for me, and I hope this inspires you to get out there and use whatever space you have, wherever you are, and grow some of your own amazing food! 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have an incredible day. 

Growing Onions from Seed

In the world of growing your own food, the best advice on the very common question of "what should I grow?" is simple: grow what you eat.  

You'll be saving money on your grocery bill by eliminating those things you're paying for at the grocery store and you'll be producing crops that taste a million times better than anything store bought.  

Now if you live in Alaska and you're always eating pineapple, your expectations will have to be slightly adjusted.  😉

But in a more practical sense, what you're used to eating on a regular basis will often be the kind of food that grows natively in the soil in your area. Thankfully, onions are one of those crops that can be grown in a wide variety of areas (as well as being used in a wide variety of ways) so it should fit nicely into your crops. You'll have to determine based on your location if you should be growing long day, short day or intermediate onions, and that's important for success for where you are.  I'm in zone 6a, and we grow long day onions here.  

This is my 3rd year of attempting to grow my own onions from seed. With most new projects, a period of trial and error comes into play and that is no different here. 

Year 1, the germination rate was brutally dismal.  After a few weeks and zero progress I dumped the entire plan.  I've since concluded that the seeds I had were past their "best by" date and that was most likely the reason for failure.

Year 2, I followed some advice I'd read online about planting, specifically overseeding and thinning out before planting and at first that seemed to work out pretty well. I used a different seed company than the first year and germination was nearly 100%.  They grew fairly well but once I finally transplanted them outside after the last frost date passed, they failed miserably. Strong start, but failure after going into the ground. I'm still not entirely sure why, but I suspect they weren't strong enough to go into the ground, and that heavy squirrel activity had something to do with it.  

This year I decided to do an experiment.  Two different trays of seeds (same seed company) and two different types of planting.  

Method #1:

In Tray #1, I have 36 plug cells, and 1 single seed in each plug. Germination rate for this tray was astounding as I ended up with 33.  So the germination rate this year, for this method, was very impressive. 

Method #2:

In Tray #2 I have 16 pots with 8-12 seeds in each pot.  Germination for this method was equally impressive with almost 100% germination rate for all. I used about half the seeds per pot as I did last year.

The most noticeable thing, is the strength of plants in the individual plug trays, as opposed to the ones in the overseeded pots. As of today, 3 weeks after the seeds were planted, the ones in pots, are much taller, and much stronger than the ones in the individual plug trays.  

I will keep documenting this process as the weeks go by and it will be interesting to see which onion plants do better. My hope, of course, is that the plants will continue to grow well, and then thrive once outside in the native soil.  If squirrel activity remains an issue, I'll be investing in some pest netting to remove that from the eqation. 

As of today, with all the plants, a "haircut" was in order and they were all cut down to roughly 3 inches.  I will keep documenting this Onion from Seed journey to see where it goes and my hope is, it serves to help anyone else on the same self-sufficient journey to growing their own food for their families.