There are some unusual onion varieties adapted to our climate that are fun and tasty.
This popular vegetable has been grown and eaten for 5000 years as a food and medicine.
It was worshipped in Egypt and buried with the pharaohs. It's easy to store fresh or dried. And their are even wild versions in New England. What is this prestigious veggie? It's the onion.
Many gardeners shy away from growing onions, thinking they're too hard to grow, or too easy to buy. But there's some unusual yellow, white or purple varieties specifically adapted to our climate that are fun and tasty.
For storage, I like the yellow Copra, which will last for months in a cool basement.
For a sweet, Italian, cipollini onion, try Red Marble with its flattened shape. Walla Wallas are large sweet onions adapted to northern latitudes.
You can also grow varieties of scallions, small pearl onions, torpedo-shaped bulbs, and even a perennial onion. Egyptian walking onions come back each year producing small, spicy bulbs in the ground and on their stems. When buying, look for day neutral or long day varieties. Short day onions, such as Vidalia, are for southern growing.
You can buy onions in many ways. Sets and plants are the easiest, but have fewer varieties available. Seeds take more time, but you can grow many different types. Start seeds indoors now, under grow lights. Transplant in spring into a raised bed or container filled with loose, well-drained soil amended with compost.
Keep onions well watered and weeded. If you have extra transplants, harvest these at a young stage as scallions or baby onions. For large bulbs, harvest when the tops naturally flop over.
Next week on the Connecticut Garden Journal, I’ll be talking about bleeding hearts. Until then, I’ll be seeing you in the garden.
