How to store onions and garlic in the apartment

Onions and garlic are one of the most affordable and at the same time the most useful for human health products. To have fragrant and fresh heads of vegetables on hand all year round, you need to know how to store them at home in the winter.





There are several common storage methods that will allow onions and garlic to remain fit for consumption until a new crop is harvested.

Almost no dish is complete without onions: salads, patties, soups... Growing onions in your garden is only half the battle, it still needs to be properly preserved, and for urban residents who do not have cellars, this is doubly difficult.

Keeping onions at home

1. Preparation for storage
   Cleaning of onions should be carried out no later than mid-August in dry weather. In order for the onion to be well and long stored, it must be fully ripe. Immature onions still do not have enough scales, which will subsequently protect the bulb from drying out.
   
   
   
   On the other hand, an onion that has “sit out” on the bed can begin to grow again and even take new roots. These heads don't last long. When harvesting, it is not recommended to pull out the bulbs, throw them, knock on the ground. This can lead to a reduction in storage time.
   
   
   
   
   
   Storage of onions is much more effective after thorough drying. To do this, the bulbs together with the leaves need to be decomposed in a thin layer in the fresh air. It is convenient to use shell nets for this: there is no direct contact with the ground and ventilation is good.
   
   
   
   
   
   After the onion has dried, it is necessary to trim everything extra. It is more convenient to use scissors. The dry leaves are trimmed so that the neck is 4-6 cm long and the roots remain, without affecting the onion donus. If the onion will be stored in the spit, then the length of the neck should be longer, up to 15 cm.
   
   Examine and feel every bulb. There should be no damage, no foci of disease, no sprouts. Select for storage only strong, healthy bulbs with a thin and dry neck.
   
   
2. Storage in tights
   In wooden boxes, wicker baskets, fabric bags, you can create good ventilation, but it is difficult to protect the bulbs from contact with neighboring bulbs, one of which can be rotten and can spoil up to 2 kg of crop.
   
   
   
   One of the old and proven methods is onion-keeping In braids. In such knittings, onions are stored for a long time, they can serve as a decoration for the kitchen, but they require painstaking work and great patience.
   
   But in the refrigerator, the onions will remain fresh only a few months. And under no circumstances wrap it in plastic. Onions do not like this material, high humidity and lack of ventilation will quickly lead to its decay.
   
   
   
   
   
   A simple and effective way to store onions is in old women’s tights. Over this habit of our grandmothers at one time satirists laughed enough, but it nevertheless works and protects onions from rotting.
   
   
   
   
   
   Especially if there are nodules between the bulbs. You put an onion, you tie a knot, then you put the next one. The resulting onion "leg" should be hung in a dry cool place. If you need a bow, just cut off the bottom without touching all the others.
   
   

How to store garlic

1. Storage in braids and bundles
   If there is not much garlic for laying for the winter, then the optimal method of storage, beloved by our ancestors, is wicker or braid. Wreaths of garlic heads can be saved in the cold, for example in the cellar, and in the warmth, hanging on the wall or under the ceiling of the kitchen, pantry, insulated balcony.
   
   
   
2. Bank custody
   Simple and comfortable. garlic In winter, in a glass jar. The bank before that needs to be sterilized to get rid of bacteria that cause rot and spoilage. Then fill with heads of dry garlic and cover on top with a clean dry cloth.
   
   
   
   Such a jar should be placed in a dark cool place. If it will be the shelf of the kitchen cabinet, it is better to choose the lower one, it is usually cooler there. Even in a city apartment, garlic in such banks can stand until spring, preserving all its taste.
   
   
3. Storage in salt
   According to many housewives, garlic is best preserved in salt. If when stored in banks, some heads begin to germinate in spring, then this practically does not happen in salt.
   
   
   
   For storage, place whole unpeeled garlic heads in clean cans, and then generously fill the garlic with the edible salt of large grinding. Close the cans and send them to a cool place. The obvious disadvantage is that a lot of garlic can not be saved.
   
   By the way, earlier we wrote about how to arrange the perfect garlic bed on the windowsill. It is not difficult to do this, the main thing is to constantly moisten growing garlic, it requires a lot of moisture. Then the harvest will be glorious!
   
   

Keeping garlic and onions for the winter at home is quite simple. It is important to follow all the preparation measures and choose the most suitable storage method for yourself.