Photo Article from the Welsh Hovel - This is for you C! I am the onion stringing master

Describing neighbour C as an earth mother is, of course, a compliment. The Mrs knows that I view the idea that food comes from Tesco with true disdain. However, the husband of  earth mother C, another C, wandered in the other day and saw four onions on a string in the kitchen and quipped “that’s not much of a decoration.” He touched on a sore nerve as he, generously, dropped off two bottles of his home produced, but pressing outsourced, apple juice. I am the first to admit that not only have I dreaded stringing my onions and my first stab, which C spotted, was no great success. However…

I could put it off no longer and last night I battled away and now have two complete strings. I do the stringing on a hook in the kitchen but both now hang with the garlic among an ever increasing array of jams, vodkas, gins and jar preserved vegetabes in my larder.  I admit I made errors. I should have string them earlier when the stalks were a bit more flexible. And I should have cut with a longer stalk length. Hence i have a small rack of onions that I ci=ould not string. But by the end I was doing it like a Frenchman on Bastille Day.  Next year this will be easy and the 2022 plan is to expand both onion and garlic production materially.