Storing Onions And Sowing Green Manure

Storing onions
Dirty Nails is relieved that he made time to harvest his onions before the fine weather broke around the middle of this month. Onions are ripe for harvesting when the shiny bulbs with browned-off tops lift easily from the ground, and the roots are withered and dry. He sorts his onions out before tying them in bunches and hanging them in a sheltered and airy place to dry completely. A few always come up soft and mushy and these go straight onto the compost heap. Others may be soft and brownish under the papery skin around the neck and are liable to suffer neck rot in store. These are put aside for consumption first, as are any that have bolted and have a thick, stiff central stem.

The vast majority are usually fine however, and will be ready to store for the winter in a frost-free shed, suspended from the beams. If he has more onions than can be comfortably hung, Dirty Nails will keep them one-deep in fruit trays. Stored this way after a good season, onions should last well into early next summer.

Green manure
With a large area of the veg garden now empty, a green manure crop can be sown. This is not grown for eating, but to replenish or improve the soil. Green manures are usually hoed off and/or dug into the plot before they flower. Dirty Nails likes to scatter seeds of Phacelia onto open ground at this time of year. It is a quick growing plant that will suppress weeds and can be dug in during the autumn or left to over-winter. He likes Phacelia especially because inevitably some will be allowed to bloom. The delicate blue flowers start off like a tufted bud and then unfurl into a long tongue of tiny flowers which beneficial insects adore.

Natural History In The Garden: Slow Worms

Slow worms are resident dwellers in and around the wilder, rougher parts of Dirty Nails’ veg plot. They may be chanced upon as they bask on the sun-kissed banks this month. In spite of their snake-like appearance slow worms are in fact legless lizards and totally harmless to humans.

A large specimen may be finger-thick and nearly a foot (30 cm) in length. The skin is fairly uniform in colour, ranging from brown-gold through to silver-grey, and although made up of tiny scales it is silky smooth to the touch. If startled, slow worms will glide effortlessly into the thick sward. From the moment they are born their favourite food is slugs which are consumed in vast quantities.

Vegetable Snippets: More Facts About Onions

Gasses released by broken cells in the preparation of onions in the kitchen are the causes of crying at this time. Dirty Nails finds that chewing on a hunk of bread, without swallowing, calms the stinging irritation. He employs this tactic when onions are on the chopping board and it works every time although he is not sure exactly how or why.

The potent and flavoursome layers which make up an onion are actually modified leaves in which the plant stores supplies of food and water to survive the winter. The stem of an onion is internal. It is that bit just above the roots from which the edible leaves arise.

In the agricultural depression from 1348 to 1500, caused when the black death wiped out nearly half of the entire UK population, onions were an important ingredient in stews cooked up by the poor folk of those Medieval times. Known as pottage, it included whatever veg could be grown in a small piece of land set aside for growing food, called a pottager. According to the season, pottage typically consisted of onions, garlic, colewort, leeks, parley, scallions, carrot, parsnip, turnip, chervil, chives and rosemary.