Harvesting Onions

Yesterday we had some very heavy rain, our local area got about 3-4 inches and our yard flooded. I went out to check my little garden plots today and most of my onions had been washed up after being under water yesterday. The roots were the only thing holding them in place. About 1/3 of the tops had fallen over as well, so today I have been trying to figure out what to do next. Do I harvest them, try to anchor them back in the soil or leave them as is?

Since onions are one of those plants that can be harvested at any time I decided I am going to go ahead and harvest the plants with the fallen stems over the next week, I anchored some of the onions whose tops had not fallen but the entire plant had been washed up, and I'm leaving the others. I'm taking a wait and see attitude right now. I only have about 30 onion plants right now and as often as I use onions I can easily go through these in a couple of weeks since they are relatively small bulbs (larger than a golf ball, smaller than a tennis ball).

From what I've been reading, in Texas onions are harvested in May when 2/3 of the tops have fallen on the entire crop, where they are then pulled and laid in the sun to cure (outer layers dry to protect the inner layers), then the tops are cut off and they are stored or the tops can be braided and the onions hung until pulled off for use.

I feel that I've been fairly successful with the onions and I'd be comfortable planting them again in the future, so I think I'll plant many more in future years. It'll be a great money saver since I use them almost daily in my cooking. 

Here is my onion plot when I went to check on it today before I started playing around in it. I also have a yellow squash and zucchini planted in there two in the bare spots where onions didn't make it. When I tried stepping into the middle of the plot to help prop up a couple of the onions I ended up sinking down about 8 inches into the mud the soil is that soft right now.

Orangeade

Winter is orange season in Texas and I've been buying them up by the bag every chance I get. Unfortunately hubby and I don't always get them all eaten before they start to go soft. So tonight I made some orangeade that my dear friend Lupita taught me how to make from her days growing up in Central Mexico. When she comes over to cook with me she always heads straight for my fridge to see what citrus I have on hand to make this wonderful beverage. We use any citrus on hand and combining them is always an adventure for the taste buds and takes me back to my childhood days of 5 Alive. Remember that??? Anyway, I digress...



Orangeade (or any kind of Citrusade)

8-12 oranges (lemons, limes or grapefruit work as well)
1 cup sugar
2 quarts of water

This is almost exactly like making a pitcher of Kool-Aid only you're using fresh juice instead. Juice the oranges into a pitcher, add the sugar and stir. Gradually add water stirring as you go until sugar is dissolved.

A couple of tips for you, first I cut the oranges into quarters to make juicing easier, second if you have a hard time getting sugar to dissolve try making a simple syrup of 1 cup sugar and 1/2 water (the ratio for a simple syrup is always 2 parts sugar to 1 part water), cook in a sauce pan over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Then add to fresh squeezed juice and remaining water, stir and serve over ice.

A bit of trivia for you as well. Texas produces very sweet, juicy oranges and grapefruit from October to May. They are grown in the Rio Grande Valley along the Texas/Mexico border. The warm, humid South Texas climate produces an orange that is lighter in color with a thinner peel than oranges from California, Arizona or Florida.