Salty Onions

Not all of my seeds sprouted. I had to go and buy a few bunches of onions. We like lots and lots of onions in the ground, in braids, in just about all our food around here. Several hundred onions being planted before St. Patrick's day is not unusual for us.

Unfortunately it suddenly started raining here. If planting was only going to be delayed for a day or two, my onion bunches could be kept moist wrapped in a ragged towel. But delay is going to be a week or more. I broke out my egg cartons and placed a little dirt in them, laid down the bunches, covered with a bit of soil and set them aside with a watering.

Anyone want a cat? This is Salt. As soon as I set the first bunch down, and turned away to get another bunch going, this is what happened.



In other news, which brings us back to the, this year is going to be a good year topic, We paid off a major debt. I don't think I mentioned it here, as it has to do more about motorcycles than homesteading. But a few years back, we paid off our motorcycle loan a year early. The bank that held the lien reported us as a bad debt because of this. I fought the bank on this and won. The credit bureaus, except for one, had it removed. The other one left it with my argument. Even with this gone, our credit was shot, didn't change. Now we don't have credit cards, never have. So husband got a line of credit from Snap-on At the time we could afford it. Turns out husband didn't look at a few fine print details, like the 21% interest rate that you paid first before paying into the amount you actually borrowed. We paid into it for 2 years, then the layoffs. We tried to return the products, knowing that we couldn't keep up on the payments. Guess what the fine print said about that.

If we were to return it, we would still have to pay into it, 60% of the final cost including interest. Why would we keep paying and not get to keep the tools. Husband asked about defaulting it. We were told that if we did that, that Snap-on could take all of our tools that we paid cash out right for, no longer owed them for, up to the last 7 years to pay off what we owed. That is my husband's livelihood. Without those tools, he wouldn't be able to do his job. So we sucked it up, and paid late over and over again.

But tax return came last month. And we took just about all of it and paid it off. No more Snap-on.

I paid extra into my mortgage this month. EXTRA! No more asking the boss for an advance on paychecks just to have enough money for gas. We are now caught up on all our bills. Nothing outstanding anymore.

The only debt we have left besides mortgage, and monthly utilities is our school loans.

This year is looking to be a good year.

Is that spring I smell?

I have potatoes and onions in the ground. Loose leaf veggies and cabbage family items in, and let us not forget the peas. Now if we can only stay away from a hard frost in April, I will be happy.

Urth is no longer nursing on Eddie. Milking is twice a day on her now. And all the green grass that is coming in has increased the Dams milk supply.

Sammy comes when called. She seems a little weary, but pushes through that. Good neighbor told me horror stories about her. So I am confused on why he wants me to have her. Talk about a horse neophyte. But he tried to reassure me yesterday that everything would be fine, then proceeded to tell me a story about her throwing him. I haven't tried to ride her yet. We are just getting to know each other right now. I will wait to ride until I have a buddy to call the ambulance when I fall off of her, or am thrown off of her.

Are you getting your spring gardens ready, those in the Midwest? I realize there is still time for you northerners.

Better get it done.

My onions are now in. If you don't know when you should plant, I have the USDA's updated Zone map here.

I went looking through my blog to see what I have posted on onions. I have storing and harvesting, but nothing on growing. Now why is that? I wonder. First, no one has asked, and second they are rather simple. You push them into the ground when all the other root vegetable go in. The only thing you really want to avoid with onions is planting them in a row, as the maggot likes to go from onion to onion.

We broke our tiller, twice. So we bought another one as we are behind because of this breakage. We will fix it when we have time, and use it for breaking up the soil between rows. Our new tiller is cheaper, yet my husband likes it much more than the other. It can get into the soil deeper then the more expensive one.

I have half my potatoes in. This has caused a panic here at the homestead. We are far behind when we shouldn't be. But sometimes, ok lots of times, things just don't go as planned. Thank goodness for neighbors! My neighbors from across the way have borrowed a tractor and disc. He came over last night and asked if we had anything we needed disced up. OH YES! So today he will be discing my new garden spot, discing the good neighbors field, and digging out our other neighbors horse barn to level it.

This morning after milking I will be heading across the way to help my neighbor decide what kind of chickens she wants. It's funny, I have seemed to have started a homesteading trend in my neighborhood. Aw, but do they really want me to be their teacher?

Storing onions part II

A Homesteading Neophyte: Braiding and storing onions {with pictures!}


I thought it fitting to go back and talk more about onion storage. It seems that a few people have been looking around here just for that information.

Different onions store better than others, or so I have discovered. Sweet onions do not last as long as the strong ones. If you are braiding them and storing them in your kitchen {as I am doing} check on them daily for wetness. If they are wet, they are no good. What I have been doing is checking the sweet ones for softness. If they have become squishy but not yet damp, I will use it immediately, either by cooking it up to eat, canning it as French Onion Soup, or placing it in the dehydrator to make into powder later.

I am sure that the book was right about the low temperature that onions should be stored. Unfortunately I have nothing that cool {except a fridge} here. I have hung mine in my kitchen, out of direct sunlight and where air can move freely around them. My sweet onions will not last out the winter in this manner, but the strong onions should.

Sometimes on has to be creative and compromise to become successful at homesteading. Just about everything you read will need to be tweaked a bit to work for you.

Potatoes

Last year's potato crop was flooded out, the year before was over run with volenteer sunflowers. This year we decided on a lazy bed. {I think someone needs to edited the lazy bed entry} It took some work to get the straw down onto the mounds without it blowing away in the Kansas wind, but we managed. And it turned out to be the best thing for us.

Yesterday I noticed that the potato stalks had dried up and died. It was time to starting gathering potatoes. I began to pull off the straw and throw the potatoes into the basket. We ended up with a full bushel {50 lbs} {22.68kg}. And we still have yet to dig.

I am completely amazed at the sheer amounts we are ending up with. We spent $8 USD {6 EUR} on seed potatoes. In the grocery store you can spend $5 USD {3 EUR} on 5 lbs {2.2 kg}. So we just saved ourselves a bit of money. And with the lazy bed, there was little of the way of work.

I am looking forward to the potato soups, the Irish stews, and potato pancakes that I will be making with all these gorgeous potatoes.

I also canned 5 pints of French red Onion Soup. First time I had ever done that. I didn't seem to run into any problems, as the soup came out very tasty.

French Onion soup

4 tbsp butter
2 med. onions {I used red} very thinly sliced
1 tbsp flour
½ cup Sherry cooking wine
1 quart beef broth

Brown onions with butter in a sauce pan. Sprinkle with flour. Cover then simmer for 20 minutes. Stirring once in awhile. Pour in the wine. While that's simmering, heat up the broth. add to onions and boil the mix slowly for 5 minutes. Pour into canning jars. Process for 20 minutes at 10 lbs. {Makes 2 ½ pints}

Sorry no pictures today, batteries in my camera are dead, and I won't get into town until Friday

To everyone that sponsored me in the blogathon. You should be gettting an e-mail form blogathon.org with the link to make a donation to Farm Aid tomorrow. Don't forget, please.

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.

harvesting onions, pickling cucumbers and Farm Aid

I had three very large cucumbers to deal with yesterday, and discovered that I was out of vinegar. I have mentioned before that I am nowhere close to a store, and there was no point in wasting gas just to get vinegar. I thought about making cucumber soup, but then my husband is the only one that would eat that.

I rifled through my fridge and found that I had saved the pickle juice for store bought and homemade pickles. BINGO! I cut up the cucumbers in slices and stuffed them into the jars, bread and butter pickles, sweet pickles and dill. I also went and shredded some cucumber up into relish. {Though personally I think it looks more like shredded zucchini. We will see in a few months how well these quicky refrigerator pickles come out.


After the heat exposure yesterday, I had no plans on going outside. But my animals needed fresh water, the sprinkler in the garden needed to be moved, green beans needed picked and onions needed to be set out to dry.

I was too thrilled about being outside, even in the early morning the temperature was in the 90's f. {The high was 108f}

I laid out the onions on a torn bed sheet in the middle of my driveway. We have several types of onions, large, small, sweet and "normal", red, white and yellow. I only lost 6 from rot.
I planted more than 400 bulbs, some are still in the ground. From past experience, I only expected half to survive. But we planted them as soon as the ground was workable, still winter. Almost all of them thrived. Wonderful! {Don't know yet if that is sarcasm}


Here they are laid out on the sheet, think we have enough to make it to next harvest?















I want to thank those of you that have already sponsored me in the Blogathon. Those of you that haven't, it isn't too late. On July 29th bloggers from around the world will stay up and blog for 24 hours, raising money for the charity of their choice {I had a dream last night that I missed the blogathon} I have chosen Farm Aid as my charity.

From the Farm aid website;

About Farm Aid
Working to keep family farmers on their land, Farm Aid brings together family farmers and citizens to guarantee fresh local food is available to you. Together we can restore family farm-centered agriculture that ensures safe, healthful food, protects natural resources, and strenthens local economies. Farm Aid exceeds the 65 percent standard for program expenditures set by the Better Business Bureau and other charity watchdog groups that monitor non-profit performance. Eighty cents of every Farm Aid dollar goes to programs supporting family farmers, including grants to organizations that help keep farmers on their land.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Every donation helps. To help tempt you into donating, I thought about having a drawing. For every $5USD you donate your name will go into the hat {$10USD will get your name in twice and so forth}
The prize is a book called

"Extraordinary Chickens"

This is a bookcrossed book, but as the winner you are under no obligation to BookCross it.

Sponsor Me!

Heat Exposure

I went out into the garden yesterday, planning on only getting some Pok Choi and an onion to chop into some Rooster noodle soup. I pulled up an onion and noticed that most of my onions were ready to pull. I should have thought it through. Instead I started to pull them up and throw them into my basket. I managed to get two bushels before the dizziness struck me.

I had not been paying attention to he passing time, and my body didn't give me any signs until I got dizzy. I left the onions in the baskets in the garden and slowly walked back to the house. I was still sweating, so heat stroke was the last thing on my mind.

I slowly drank some water, resisting the urge to throw it up, and laid down in the air conditioned house. My weather alarm suddenly sounded, we were under a heat advisory. It was 107f {41c} outside. No wonder I felt weak.

I began to feel better, so dinner was prepared and I took my oldest son into town for swimming lessons. Standing in the heat for thirty minutes, seemed to aggravate the god of heat exposure, and he stricken me again.

Home at last, I gave my three dogs a bath, an attempt to cool myself as well as them. Felling oh so much better, I drove my car out to the garden. {That in its self should had said something} I moved the water, and gathered up the basket of onions. Then the green beans called to me. By this time it was twilight and had cooled of into the low 90's f {32c}. My head still pounded, but I had to get these green beans. I managed to get a row before I decided that this was a bad idea.

I went back to the house and into a cool shower. I laid down with only a thin sheet and asked for a glass of water. The water didn't stay down. I managed to achieve full blown heat exposure.

I should know better. It being this hot here is normal in July, but I was thinking of the success of the garden. We were actually doing well this year, and I wanted to get the veggies in before they burned up. I don't plan on going out today, I will finish canning my rooster soup, pickle cucumbers and can some Irish stew.

Now if this headache would go away.

a few roots in my garden

Onions

I have never done well with growing my own onions. Most of them die or stay small. I still don’t know what I have done wrong. This year I have many, over 400. And they are growing nicely. Too nicely in fact. I was only expecting half to grow, that’s why I bought so many. Last year I hung the ones I had in a nylon stocking in my coat closet. {We all smelled like onions in the winter} This year we will have to clean out the cellar and try to keep them in there. I am grateful that I do use a lot of onions in my cooking.

I walked out the other day and found that some of my plants where growing flowers. Oddly enough I found this thrilling, next year I will try and grow onions from seed. I have read the books and I am prepared.

Potatoes

I have had trouble with them as well. The first year they didn’t want to grow, the next they were flooded out. This year we went the route of the lazy bed. The lazy bed is a very wide and tall row, and instead of burying the seed potatoes, you cover them with straw. All of the seed potatoes that we planted are sprouting. Now if someone could tell us how to keep the wheat {from the straw} from growing. But because of this, we are going to go ahead and try growing and grinding our own grains.

Sweet potatoes
Last year I had wonderful sweet potato vines, no roots. This year we are trying again.

Peanuts

Last year’s harvest was ok. We ate only a few, and then placed the rest in a nylon stocking and hung them in the barn to dry out. We left them there all winter to be planted this spring. I actually did something right! They are growing. My plan is to have enough peanuts to make 12 quarts of peanut butter and enough to replant next year. {And we started 3 grape vines for the jelly}

Garlic

My garlic died last year, all of it. Turns out that it is best planted in the fall and left over winter. I will try again at that time.

Carrots

My first year with carrots was a good one. The boys would go out and pull them right out of the ground to eat. {Sometimes they washed them first} The next year, I only got one. I found a sandy spot in the garden and planted them close to the tomato plants. Looks like a good year.

The picture above is of the onions that were ready to bolt. This is the same amont that I had in total last year.