2020 Garden Produce Storage Thread

[Meadowlark]

It's that time of year in Texas to harvest and store the spring crops. From now until August, we will be harvesting and storing our food for the year.

I'm hopeful we have enough interest in this thread to get some new ideas, recipes, and techniques for storing our garden produce and prolonging our enjoyment of it.

Post 'em up please.

I'll start with what we are doing right now....onion relish. Great on hot dogs, steaks, baked potatoes, whatever you would use on a relish.

Ingredients
• 10 cups chopped sweet onions (about 7-8 medium-sized onions; red and yellow shown)
• 2 1/4 cups white vinegar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons celery seed
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Directions
1. Combine all ingredients in a non-reactive pan and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 min.
3. Ladle the relish into clean hot half-pint jars with 1/2 in head-space.
4. Wipe the rims, cap the jars, and loosely seal.
5. Process sweet and spicy onion relish in a water bath canner for 10 minutes.

Let the jars sit for two weeks before using; this gives the onion time to age and mellow....its surprisingly good.

 

[Meadowlark]

Another way we prolong our enjoyment of garden onions is to clean, chop, and freeze in small bags sized to how much you will use.

Very easy, no blanching, no pressure can, etc. and last about a year although we always use ours before then.

I found this very effective chopper which really makes it simple to process 'em.

The chopper has a clever pull string in it. Very easy to use and very sharp blades. You can make as fine or as course as you choose by the number of pulls on the material.

 

[vette-kid]

I love both of these, simple and effective. I did pickles and picked jalapenos one year. Water-bath canned and stored in the refrigerator they last better part of two years. I think I'll try the relish with jalapenos this year.

 

[Meadowlark]

Our primary method of long term storage of onions is shown below...store them in a dry location with excellent air circulation and they will last several months. My goal is always to have fresh garden onions in the Thanksgiving dressing...and usually succeed .

Never let a stored onion touch another and always dry before storing are two tips that help immensely in storage.

Looking to process about two hundred pounds of yellow and red 1015s in the above space in the next couple of weeks

.

 

[vette-kid]

Our primary method of long term storage of onions is shown below...store them in a dry location with excellent air circulation and they will last several months. My goal is always to have fresh garden onions in the Thanksgiving dressing...and usually succeed .

Never let a stored onion touch another and always dry before storing are two tips that help immensely in storage.

View attachment 63694


Looking to process about two hundred pounds of yellow and red 1015s in the above space in the next couple of weeks

View attachment 63695.

Id love to store then for fresh use, but dry locations are in severe shortage here! Even the house stays around 50-60% humidity.

 

[Meadowlark]

I love both of these, simple and effective. I did pickles and picked jalapenos one year. Water-bath canned and stored in the refrigerator they last better part of two years. I think I'll try the relish with jalapenos this year.

Yes, that sounds good...I'm going to add jalapenos to the next relish batch. Thanks.

 

[Meadowlark]

Id love to store then for fresh use, but dry locations are in severe shortage here! Even the house stays around 50-60% humidity.

If you remove all water about 1 week before harvest, then let the harvested onions dry in full sun for a few days, then move to storage it really makes a big difference.

LOL 50% humidity is only a dream here in East Texas.

 

[vette-kid]

If you remove all water about 1 week before harvest, then let the harvested onions dry in full sun for a few days, then move to storage it really makes a big difference.

LOL 50% humidity is only a dream here in East Texas.

That's inside! I don't think we EVER see 50% outside. 90%+ is the average. I think we are similar climates. So I'm surprised your able to store them that way in an area that is not climate controlled.

I do have a storage space in the garage that stays dark and relatively cool as it's underneath the climate controlled house and at the back of the garage away from the doors. I've thought of using it for potato storage. I could put a small fan in there, so perhaps it would work, but I'm guessing the humidity will be high.

 

[Meadowlark]

The "experts" say you can't store short day onions more than a month...but the experts mostly don't know how to do it...mine last about 9 months more if I'm lucky.

 

[headfullofbees]

I'm still eating red onions which I harvested back in August. A variety called, "Red Baron."
Mine are long day onions, but there are onion cultivars which will keep longer than a couple of months, given good storage conditions.
One, which I'm giving a go this winter, is a 4oz onion called, "Hi Keeper."
I have found that, in either long or short day onions, that length of storage is inversely proportional to sweetness, so I grow only a small quantity of sweet onions.

 

[skinyea]

i pressure canned this recipe 3 weeks ago. just tried 1. pretty awesome! ty! only ? can you do it in pints or do you have to do it in 1/2 pints

 

[skinyea]

salsa

16cups of roma tomato
5 cups of sweet onion
5 cups green pepper
3 cup jalapeno or 1/2 cup habanero
1.5 cup apple cider
4 tbl spoon cumin
4 garlic cloves
salt to taste

put all ingredients into a stainless stell sauce pan bring to boil. simmer for 12 -15 min depending on how thick you like salsa.

pressure can for what time your altitude demands.