Since we’re on the topic of food storage, let’s talk about another veggie that does just fine with room temperature storage! Onions!
One of the important “keys” for properly storing onions is proper airflow. Unlike our potatoes that we talked about previously, onions need a “lot” of airflow to keep them well stored. You’ll likely observe that if you buy bulk onions at the store, they often come in a sort of mesh bag. This is because of this somewhat unique storage technique.
In years past, we used old pantyhose and other similar techniques for storing our onions. This eventually became a pain point for us, especially as we were increasing our onion supplies, so we sought out dedicated onion storage bags. These weren’t terribly expensive and it solved a problem we had every fall, figuring out “creative” storage methods.
We’ve really come to enjoy these onion storage socks. We like that they have velcro on the sides, which is purpose built to allow easy access to your onions through the winter. Unlike with pantyhose, we don’t have to fight the storage method to retrieve our onions.
Like with potatoes, if you go looking, you’ll find “perfect” storage temperatures and humidity recommendations for storing those onions. We don’t do any of that! We just hang our onion bags in an area where they won’t really bother us, indoors and subject to room temperatures and even warmer temperatures given our wood heating. We maybe see a little bit of reduction in storage times of our onions this way, but not by much.
Once you start to see the onions sprout (i.e. growing new green bits), that’s a good sign that your storage time is nearing its end. These onions are still perfectly find to use, but you’ll likely find them a bit more zesty and spicy than onions that haven’t begun the regrowth process. If you want longer term storage, this is a good time to blanch and freeze your onions. Or, simply just freeze them.
You can preserve both whole and diced onions for very long term storage, if desired. We recommend the blanch and freeze technique, which we talk about a lot. This can get you literal years worth of storage time, if you need it. Alternatively, if you want to do something crazy, you can actually replant an onion that is regrowing! Though, we will will admit that “proper” preservation is a better technique compared to regrowth.
One of the reasons we’ve been able to “go hard” on growing onions is due to the storage flexibility that onions feature. If they “required” proper storage techniques, we wouldn’t be able to grow as many and likely would also pursue other preservation techniques. But, we do appreciate the flexibility of the onion being stored indoors!
