How to store onions in the apartment: decorate the kitchen with “braids” or hide in the pantry in stockings

“He who eats onions will get rid of torment,” they say. Indeed, this vegetable is multifunctional: it has both nutritional and medicinal value. It strengthens the immune system, helps the body resist viruses and stress, restores strength, vitality and even rejuvenates. Beneficial for reproductive functions, heart and blood vessels, improves digestion and cleanses the body of harmful substances. And all this, thanks to the content of useful vitamins, mineral salts, organic acids, nitrogenous and carbohydrate substances. The ability to preserve onions in winter without loss of quality and valuable properties begins with the proper harvesting of onions.

Preparation: 5 rules

Traditionally, onions are harvested three to four months after planting. Its collection begins in August. The basic five rules for harvesting and preparing for storage sound like this.

1. Collect in dry weather. Bulbs are dug carefully so as not to damage. Do not pull the onion out of the soil and shake the earth with taps. Damaged bulbs are stored much less.
2. Dry it. This is necessary to get rid of excess moisture and harmful microorganisms. In the sun, the bulbs completely dry out in a couple of weeks. This can be done right on the bed. In cloudy weather, dry the crop by airing (on the balcony, in the gazebo or under a canopy).
3. Keep only ripened. A ripe vegetable is easily recognizable by poured, tight bulbs, thin necks or yellowing feathers.
4. Trim dry feathers and roots. After trimming, a “tail” of 6-10 cm and 2-3 cm of roots should remain. It is convenient to trim with scissors.
5. Sort the heads. Take large and healthy bulbs without any damage. Small, and even more unripe - separate for priority use.

Where and how best to store onions in winter ...

The optimal time for laying onions is October. And an ideal place for long-term storage is a dry basement or cellar. But such premises are not in every house, and even more so - an apartment. Therefore, wherever the onions lay in winter, two main conditions are important.

1. Low humidity. The room must be dry. Whether it is a basement, a cellar, a special storehouse in the house or a pantry, mezzanines, a separate cupboard or just a corner in the apartment, an insulated balcony, an attic.
2. Air ventilation. For storage of onion stock you need a breathable container. Usually these are special boxes or items adapted to storage (sometimes completely unexpected).

Packing options

It is most convenient to lay the bulbs in wooden boxes. Their height should not exceed 30 cm. A prerequisite is openings or small openings for ventilation. Such storage tanks save space, because they can be placed on top of each other. Instead of wooden, you can take plastic boxes. If they are not a girlfriend, you can experiment with tara and store the vegetable in the following items.

• In the boxes. Cardboard boxes are also good for storage. But you have to work hard and pre-cut in the side walls and the bottom with a dozen small openings for air access.
• In the baskets. The wicker basket is made of natural materials and is ideal for storage. In such a container, air circulates perfectly. In addition, “braids” look beautiful and aesthetically pleasing.
• In fabric bags. They pass air very well. The main thing is that they are not bulky and not too large. The maximum height of the onion layer is 35 cm. An alternative to fabric bags is paper.
• In the grids. Polypropylene nets for vegetables guarantee not only complete air circulation, but also the visibility of the contents. In special packaging, it is easy to detect sprouted and decayed onions.
• In nylon stockings. Oddly enough, in the age of high technology, this old grandmother's method of storing bulbs even claims to be a leader. However, for aesthetic reasons, do not decorate your kitchen with hanging tights. Onion stockings can be placed, for example, in the pantry or cellar. But if you still want to use the supply of bulbs for decorating the kitchen, then do not cut dry onion feathers, but braid them in a braid. If you manage to do this carefully, the knitwear will look like a decorative ornament, and also clean the air. By the way, according to reviews, in this way it is best to store onions in the house. It is clear that such a decoration does not fit into any interior.
• In egg trays. If you have gathered a lot of egg packages at home, feel free to use them as containers for storage. Place each onion in a separate recess. Place the filled trays on shelves or racks.

... and in the summer

Onions harvested in June-July are not hardy and are not intended for storage. Usually it should be used within a few weeks after collection. It is convenient to store onions in the summer in the refrigerator in a cleaned form, using the following instructions from four recommendations.

1. Peeled onions are placed in a bag.
2. Pour half a glass of water into the bag.
3. We knot the cellophane or tightly close it with a fastener.
4. Every three days we change the water for fresh.

Instead of a bag, you can use a pot or bowl filled with water, with a similar schedule for its replacement.

Necessary microclimate

Store onions at a comfortable temperature and humidity. Perhaps this is the most important task - to maintain the desired microclimate. For each room he has his own:

• basement - air temperature 0 ° C, maximum 3 ° C, humidity - not more than 75-90%;
• apartment - average temperature 18-22 ° C, humidity - not higher than 50-70%.

Quality control

It is clear that the housewives are trying to properly store the onion so that it does not rot. But still, different varieties of onions tolerate wintering in their own way, and climatic conditions can make their own adjustments.

Do not be lazy during the entire storage period, periodically sort onions.It will be enough to do this two to three times. If you notice that it is damp, you will have to dry it again and put it in a dry container. Throw away rotten, sprouted, suspiciously soft bulbs without regret. That way you keep the rest of the onions whole.

There are not so few ways to properly store onions. Freezing is not excluded. To do this, cut it at our discretion: rings, half rings or cubes. We put one-time servings in separate packages and put them in the freezer. Please note that frozen onions are suitable for cooking only hot dishes - after freezing, it loses its "presentation", changes color and becomes watery. Packages should be placed away from frozen fruits so that they do not absorb the onion smell. Do not store chopped onions for more than six months: it loses taste and aroma.