Antique Hand-Tinted Vegetable Art

Successful storage of vegetables is not difficult and in most homes it merely means utilizing the cellar, attic, a large closet or other parts of the house, depending upon the character of the product to be stored. There are four major things to remember in storing vegetables; namely, temperature, ventilation, degree of moisture, and the quality of the vegetable.

How I Plant Onions and Garlic …Without Breaking My Back

Potatoes may be safely stored in bits on a well drained spot. Spread a layer of straw for the floor. Pile the potatoes in a long, rather than a round pile. Cover the pile with straw or hay a foot deep.

The radishes came up quick, filling the garden canopy completely that fall, and the following spring we found the plot was clean of weeds and rows of open holes were left where the radish roots had been growing. Well, we had a few extra onion plants that spring and decided to plant them in these holes, since we already had very clear lines laid out for us and a clean seedbed. What we got were the best looking onions that have ever come out of our gardens.

The onion is one of the important market-garden and truck crops in the United States and is very generally grown in home gardens. It thrives best on alluvial and drained muck soils under a temperate climate, but may be grown under a very wide range of soil and climate conditions. Onions are grown to perfection on the alluvial soils of the Nile River Valley in Egypt, under the sea breezes of the South Sea Islands, on the delta lands along the sea coast, on sandy uplands, in the arid regions under irrigation, and on reclaimed swamp lands. There is perhaps no extensive area in the United States or its possessions where the onion, in one or more of its forms cannot be successfully grown, at least for home and local use.

The onion in one or more of its several forms has been in use throughout all time of which we have authentic history. From available records it would appear that the original home of the onion was in southern Asia or in the countries surrounding or bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. During early times the onion was highly esteemed as an article of food, also as a preventive of thirst while on the march or traveling in the desert. In olden times the production of onions was confined to the alluvial river valleys, but the improvement and adaptation of varieties has made it possible to grow this crop under widely diverse conditions.

The onion plant should be put in with the root from ½ to 1 inch underground. An onion seedling set the right depth, about 1 inch, is shown in (a); the dotted line represents the size and position of the onion bulb that may be expected to develop from the seedling; about two-thirds of the bulb will be above ground, or just where it is wanted.