Braiding and storing onions {with pictures!}

To begin, you will need cured onions {Not sure what disease they have been cured of, but I don't think that matters just as long as they have been cured for several weeks until nice and dry} strong string, scissors and some sort of instruction manual.Cut off a long piece of the string and center it on the dried shoot of one onion.
Loop twice and tighten. {If not secure when you hold it up, do like I did and tie it in a knot}
Spread the string wide and place the second onion shoot in-between. Like so.Wrap the shoot around one piece of string
Then both pieces of stringNext, spread the string once more and tuck the onion shoot in-between.
Repeat for four hours or until your finger are turning purple from lack of blood since I had no other way of holding the string, your back is burning, your husband asks in a sarcastic voice if you've learned anything about onions {even if this homesteading thing was his idea, just bite your lip, you can get him back at a more appropriate time}, your children have informed you that they will not be eating any of the onions for the ten billionth time, and you yourself decide you hate onions. In the end you will get something that looks like this.A word of advice, try not to do it on your carpet.Or you could always stuff them into those saved nylon apple bags or panty hose. Makes life so much simpler, and you don't have to bore your friends to death by regaling the story of how you braided your onions for the first time.

And after all that work, the book says to keep your onions in a dark cool place. I had already planned on that, but {the book doesn't say but} the temperature at which you store your onions must never go over 45f {7c}. Here is where I fall back on my theory about the old timers playing pranks on newbie. WHAT!?! After all that work, they still have to go into the fridge! My root cellar is in no uncertain terms that cool in the summer. With the high being 110f {43c} yesterday, I would be lucky if my cellar was a chilly 70f {21c}. I really wish they would put this type of info at the top of the page for people like me that are only looking for directions on braiding onions. Something like BEFORE YOU START BRAIDING, YOU! YES YOU! THE ONE TRYING TO SKIP EVERYTHING AND GO STRAIGHT TO THE DIAGRAM! That might have gotten my attention. Well at least I now can say I have done it, and now there is a new project on the list, making a cooler root cellar. {Of course people that have seen the plans for my house will laugh, we are going underground}


On the rooster noodle soup front. One of the cans didn't seal correctly, so we ate the soup for dinner last night. Not bad, not bad at all. I also managed to can 9 more quarts of green beans, Today, carrot muffins, zucchini bread and canning cucumber soup, cabbage and potatoes.