Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: 1066 on February 10, 2009, 14:52:57
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Hi
This may sound a bit daft but…
I was out and about today and a shop still had loads of onions and shallots. I was tempted to buy some but I can’t quite work out why people grow onions in the 1st place. I’m growing fruit and veg, mainly for the taste, freshness and different varieties that are either difficult or expensive to get hold of. I’m planning on growing some salad onions later in the year – different varieties etc from the normal ones you get in the shops. But when it comes down to “normal” onions and shallots I don’t understand what the difference is between shop bought and the ones you grow yourselves? Is the taste really that much better? And does the taste really vary between the varieties? We eat loads of onions so I can’t see the possibility of growing all we need! And if I was to try and grow some what would you recommend?
Thanks
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Because you can!
Why climb mountains? - Because they are there!
You only come back to the same place.
http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allaboutallotments1_homepage
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I did think about putting the lines in my post "cos you can" but its not enough ;D
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The only reason I grow onions/garlic at the plot is so they're handy for the barbecue. I don't see much point in growing them otherwise, like you 1066 -they're much cheaper to buy in the shops and I don't have enough space to grow enough for the rest of the year. I reckon I must go through at least a bulb of garlic and two or three onions every couple of days.
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Although relatively cheap, onions in the shops are still quite a lot more expensive than growing your own, but there are definitely other vegetables where the margin is greater (like asparagus :) ). Also onions aren't one of the crops that is usually heavily treated with pesticides. To grow enough, they also take up quite a lot of space. We ran out last week and most of the time there are just two of us. Pity you can't grow them vertically (hmmm, perhaps JRP will have a suggestion).
So it's good question! Probably the satisfaction of growing your own is the main reason but also with veg like onions and potatoes I tend to grow varieties that I think have particularly good flavour and are not readily available in the shops.
Last year I grew onions from seed for the first time (Pink Torpedoes) and Hercules, Red Baron and Sturon from sets. This year I plan to grow Hercules and Kamal from sets and the following from seed: Pink Torpedo and a few each of Greek Red Salad, Red Baron, Golden Bear, and Walla Walla (and some Banana shallots).
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This is a good question. For me, I suppose it is because they are quite easy to grow, they keep for months, we use them a lot in cooking, you can try out different varieties and they have the added advantage of repelling aphids.
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Onions and shallots were the first crop I planted on my allotment. I will continue to grow them, store them at home in my mini greenhouse because it's convenient to have them right outside the kitchen door. I think my own taste better than the shops. Plus there is the satisfaction of eating virtually an entire meal made with your own produce.
Grown from seed it's much cheaper...and you know where they have come from ;) and what's NOT been sprayed on them etc ::)
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great replies!
Hadn't thought about the repelling aphids thing nor the spraying thing, so 2 more pluses there. Still debating it :)
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I don't know if other peeps find this, but the onions I grow are a lot stronger than ones I buy in the shops........not sure why?
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shallots are very sweet and tasty, and expensive in the shops. plus not everywhere has them.
but i also enjoy growing onions, it's always satisfying to get a crop of something!
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Home grown onions have taste, bought ones don't! But if I was desperate for space, I might cut them out.
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i grow them for alot of the reasons already given ie:
convenience
because i enjoy growing my own 'anything'
i know where its come from and that nothing has been sprayed on it
Plus there is the satisfaction of eating virtually an entire meal made with your own produce.
that is so true :D
I don't know if other peeps find this, but the onions I grow are a lot stronger than ones I buy in the shops........not sure why?
yes i have found this as well last year the crying :'( while i was using my onions was almost painful to say the least, the liquid was milky white as well.
i don't use lots as there is a non onion eater in the family so i can normally find space, usually in the space under a rose arch which i use for my outdoor cucumbers.
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I'm planning of using milk cartons(see JRP's thread) around the edge of the plot filled with Onions, other shallow rooting veg and flowers.
At least it will save room in the beds.
Neil
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Because I want to, because I want to.
Because at £1.30 I got 228 Stuttgart giant sets, and I reckon I'll get at least 200 good uns out of them.
Because once there in the ground they look after thereselves, no compost/manure, no feed, just a bit of water to get them started and I'm sure the sky's will look after that.
Because I don't normally find shallots in the shops but know they are expensive and at £2.48 for 53 sets I should get a return of about 230+. ;D ;D ;D
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shallots are very sweet and tasty, and expensive in the shops. plus not everywhere has them.
but i also enjoy growing onions, it's always satisfying to get a crop of something!
also perpetual
get a shallot grow more from it, save a few grow more from them
no expense after the original purchase - same with garlic
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because I have a missus who prefers veg with no added poisons! ;) ;D ;D ;D
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because otherwise i have to get poison ones from tesco
lbb
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They taste better, I love to make up 3 or 4 big onion strings each year and use them through the winter. I love to see them growing all together ( although I hate weeding them... ) and organic onions can be quite expensive to buy in large quantities.
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OK I'm starting to get a few more reasons now! Thanks
I have to agree that growing anything and then eating it is just fab, also knowing that it hasn't been "poisoned" is a real plus.
Thinking back I remember seeing a photo of a garden with onions (Welsh I think?) planted around the edges of the beds. Which might be a way to go on the lottie. I guess shallots are the most tempting as they are expensive and not always in my local veg shop.
Nearly sold me on the idea........
:)
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I'm planning of using milk cartons(see JRP's thread) around the edge of the plot filled with Onions, other shallow rooting veg and flowers.
At least it will save room in the beds.
Neil
can't find the post. Why milk cartons?
thanks
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I'm planning of using milk cartons(see JRP's thread) around the edge of the plot filled with Onions, other shallow rooting veg and flowers.
At least it will save room in the beds.
Neil
can't find the post. Why milk cartons?
thanks
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,7549.0.html
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With me it is mainly for economic reasons!
How else could I get around half hundred weight of onions for a couple of pounds?
Then there are all the other reasons, taste, convenience, they don't go up in price when out of season, and I can keep my kids & grandkids well supplied for around ten months of the year.
Shallots although not as heavy, supplement the onions, and are nice cooked whole in a roast or stew.
And of course they are easy to grow!!
Plus I save next years supply of shallots meaning; once I have bought one lot thats it for as long as I keep producing disease free stock.
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With me it is mainly for economic reasons!
How else could I get around half hundred weight of onions for a couple of pounds?
Then there are all the other reasons, taste, convenience, they don't go up in price when out of season, and I can keep my kids & grandkids well supplied for around ten
months of the year.
Shallots although not as heavy, supplement the onions, and are nice cooked whole in a roast or stew.
And of course they are easy to grow!!
[Plus I save next years supply of shallots meaning; once I have bought one lot thats it for as long as I keep producing disease free stock.]
you have taught me someting there Tee gee been buying new sets every year
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I'm planning of using milk cartons(see JRP's thread) around the edge of the plot filled with Onions, other shallow rooting veg and flowers.
At least it will save room in the beds.
Neil
can't find the post. Why milk cartons?
thanks
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,7549.0.html
ahh - thanks for the link lbb. Don't really drink milk tho ;D
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I don't think the argument that they take up a lot of room is valid nor are they that cheap in the shops if you aggregate a years spend. Just one pole of space should easily produce over 400 man sized onions and if grown from seed will cost about £2 and tie up the land for only 4 months.
With shop onions you have no idea where they have come from, what they have been sprayed with or who has mauled them with their dirty hands. (OK you peel them but I'm getting fussy.) Plus, as a grower you need to consider what the price will be in 12 months time. I've seen onions hit £1per lb in the past but for me price is not the issue.
My stores are down to about 120 onions but there is two boxes of spring onions growing in the polytunnel and I have a small row of Welsh onions outside. I should just manage.
As for taste etc, there is far greater choice when home grown although when sliced diced and fried maybe there is not so much difference.
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I agree with Kev. 1066.
I grow 'Stuttgarter' also & they are strong flavoured & great keepers!
I reckon supermarket onions are probably Spanish & mild?
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The first year I grew some from seed and about 100 from sets and was delighted with the result.
So we worked out how many we would need for the following year: about 300 split between overwintering and spring planted ones. They didn't last much past Christmas, let alone a year's supply. Problem was, they were so delicious we had at least double the quantity. Now we just grow about 250-300 a year and buy from the farmers' market when we've run out. We never ever buy veg from the supermarket.
Our onions are always much stronger than the bought ones.
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Cor, I couldn't imagine my allotment without onions. I have rampant white rot on both my plots so it is a struggle to get a good harvest, therefore I cannot grow maincrop but do have reasonable success with overwintering hunions. The great thing with those is they go in during the autumn as the allotment starts to empty, and they come out in very early summer as it starts to fill up.
I know they are poison free, they keep me in onions until about Christmas when the leeks kick in, they are sweet, juicy and packed with flavour, they win me prizes at our local horticultural show ;D, and they are cheap, a big bag of sets for a pound or 2 to grow over a hundred of them. I also grow garlic and shallots for the same reason, and salad onions around my carrots to try and ward off carrot fly. Leeks fill my hunger gap during late winter.
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Lots of food for thought here! I wasn't planning to grow onions, as I don't have a tremendous amount of space, and the grocers round the corner sells a 4-kilo (nearly 9lb) bag for a quid! But the chemical residues issue is a good point.
I may well try shallots, I do love them in stews and I *don't* have a cheap source for those.
I've been mainly planning cooking greens, as we eat a lot of spinach, which my husband adores; and beans, and squash. Those things are all expensive to buy, and in the case of beans especially, so much better fresh.
Oh dear, with all this bad weather, I'm very behind in preparing my beds! Let's hope this winter nonsense is over soon. :( I'm trying to picture my summer garden and it's getting more and more panicky as I remember how much I have still to do.
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I grow a lot of onions this year I shall be planting about 300 sets
The reason why is simply a home grown onions has a stronger flavour and tastes like a onion should. The onions from the supermarket taste like watered down cardboard and are not kept in the best condition. I ran out of my onions 3 weeks ago and so I had to buy shop onions from Asdas
the firdst onion I cut throught was rotten the second was rotten so I took them back and got a refund. If any of my own onions fail during storage I compost them
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Thanks for all the replies
So they are easy to grow, tasty (strong or sweet depending on what you grow), not sprayed (unless you do that), repel aphids etc, can save them to sow for next year, cos you can, cos they're good on the barbi, cos its just part of growing and eating your own, they are cheaper, and don't take up too much room. On the minus side they take up room and the return for money is not such a big saver compared to things like asparagus or artichokes. The 1 thing that has been mentioned is storage - I don't have a massive area for this so that could be a prob.
So it definitely seems a thumbs up then - only a few dissenters 8)
I'll pop back to the shop then ;D they had some nice looking round shallots, can't remember the name for now, and plant them either between other plants or by the borders. wish me luck
1066
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I would definitely grow shallots even if you don't grow onions because they are so easy to grow and taste so much better than the shop bought ones and they are expensive to buy. Also you can choose a variety to suit your needs i.e. some peel easier than others. I also grew red onions and found the flavour is so much better than shop bought ones. This is my first year growing the white onions i haven't bothered before mainly using shallots instead.
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Hi 1066
Let me clarify something you mentioned in your last post;
can save them to sow for next year,
This is shallots not onions!
and to clarify that before some one picks me up on it.
Yes you can do it with onions in so far as you sow seed one year to produce sets for the next.
been mentioned is storage - I don't have a massive area for this
This need not take up a lot of space as can be seen here;
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd27/tgalmanac/Veg/P1070799.jpg)
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Thanks Kea I like red onions in salads or for roasting - so I'll see whats in the shop
And thanks for your post TeeGee. I had a similar idea in mind for storage - but the area I have in mind is quite small and any shallots or onions will be competing for space with all the other amazing crops I plan to grow this year - well amazing in my imagination and on the drawing board ::)
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When I first got my plot I didn't think I'd bother much with onions either, but as I had the space and everyone on the sites does them I decided to give them a go last year.
Well - I am converted! The great thing about them is that you can string them up and you have something from your plot to last into Autumn and winter, and which you use regularly every week. Same applies to maincrop potatoes (not the stringing up tho!) - you know it's something you use a lot of so why not have some you know are totally organic, local and pest free?
It's great to have something from the plot all year round and they do that pretty well.
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Where I live out in the sticks,onions are a ridiculous price...about 50p a pound.
We must get through about 200lbs a year so that saves me best part of £100. ;D
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All the usual reasons plus a couple.... You get a better onion than most shop bought.... you get to choose the variety, I'm a bit wierd and I like the taste of Kelsae and there's no way you'll find them in the shops..... I also like proper pickled onions, before I lost the last patch I was growing on my pickles were winning awards in my local pubs Christmas pickle competition (even if someone did put a "Handling Precautions Advised, Treat as Toxic" sign on my picallilli one year....)..... where can I buy a thousand or so pickling onions from? .... I need silverskins for the picallilli and something like Zittau or Borettana for pickled onions....
chrisc
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Wish mine looked like that Tee Gee
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I wouldn't be without onions. In August & September I make enough chutney to last the whole year, and put them into tomato sauce to freeze for the year. Then the rest are strung and hang in our porch and see us through till after Easter at least.
Last year, we had to buy onions in late spring because ours had started to sprout. The bought ones had nothing about them.
And this year I've had to buy floury potatoes as ours have run out. (Still got a few Charlottes & Belle de Fontenay.) How do they store them? The taste is non-existent, the texture is wrong and some of them are bruised and have black bits in!
(I think this is another vote for growing as much as possible yourself!)
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ive found it interesting reading all the replies about onions and im grinning away to myself because i planted 366 for the leap year as the year beforei didnt have enough for one a day (around which all my meals are based!) plus 70 extra for failures! no such thing... its such a pleasure to grow something that just gets on with growing. I planted sets ( lots of red baron/stuttgart & shallots and some white somethings) and put all the rows close to other crops to help deter bugs etc. Some were overwintered(japanese) and some spring planted : they all seemed to be ready at the same time but i left a lot pulled but laid on the ground to store much later than the other lotty folk. im still eating them from my shed and havent had a cold yet all winter, i swear itts a good deterrent! good luck .
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Stuttgart Giants brilliant.
Haven't bought an onion since last seasons crop.
Don't want too either, have you seen the price of them in the Supermarkets.
No nasty sprays just pure clean onions.
Go on and try a few, you'll be pleased you did.
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Greetings fellow onion heads!
Have to say I've loved all the replies - bit worried about the pickled onion competitions tho, never realised pubs went in for that kind of thing, what a sheltered life I have led eh?!
Well I had to go past the shop with the shallots and onions in today.... So I'm joining the happy ranks. Decided to buy small bags of red Baron, Red Sun Shallot and Golden Gourmet Shallot. They didn't have a massive selection, but for starters they sounded ok and I'll share some of the spares with a friend.
I'll let you know whether or not I'm converted to growing my onions or not later in the year ;D
Now to search / post on how to successfully grow onions ..... ::)
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If you are using sets it is almost fool proof, plant: root end down, weed, keep weeded... harvest in late summer... :)
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'Root end down', hehe! That bit's vital! Right, I'm persuaded too. Will get some shallots in.
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Right, I'm persuaded too. Will get some shallots in.
Yeah ! the more the merrier :D