The onion and garlic crop comes to its best in July and August.There’s nothing quite like the sight of all those lovely big bulbs and the knowledge that you will have plenty to eat through the winter months. With a good-sized onion bed, and maybe a sowing in autumn as well as in spring, it is perfectly possible to have a year-round supply of these tasty vegetables.
There is just one small hitch. August is often the second wettest month of the year, so just at the point when you lift the crop and spread it to dry in the sun, rain comes along to dampen everything down. If you have a large airy shed, or even an attic with good ventilation, then maybe this is no problem. Spread the bulbs out and they will dry, but they do store best if they have been dried in fresh air and with a bit of sun to harden the skins.
It is possible to become fanatical about drying onions and garlic so they store well for months. I have been known to barrow them in and out of sheds, spread them under polythene and drape them on crates. A roof worked well one year and the deck of a boat another (don’t ask!)Then there were the bunches hung from a polytunnel frame or the top of the woodpile with a covering of sorts, so last year I called a halt to this madness and decided to make a dedicated drying frame.
This frame is easy to make and it works really well.The bulbs underneath get plenty of air and the cover amplifies any heat from the sun. Rain is a big issue where I live and I thought that the damp air might penetrate everything, but in fact this wasn’t a problem. Bulbs dried under this rack have kept as sound as any I have ever had.
MATERIALS & TOOLS
■ 1805mm x 665mm clear corrugated roof panel
■ 1630mm x 650mm galvanised fencing wire (25mm mesh)
TIMBER: NEW OR RECLAIMED