Wondering how y'all put up your onions after harvest?

I'm planting some and I didn't pay alot of attention in my younger years as to how my elders put them up. Looking online, it appears the sweet onions don't preserve well but I'm thinking my grandparents kept them a fair amount of time. I remember them being dried, but that's about it.

Any methods to share?

YouTube is your friend.

I was hoping to avoid that, I swore off them some time ago because of their antics.

Keeping them as fresh as you can is hard to do .
Conditions have to be perfect IMHO .
So I'm looking into dry canning them in pint and half pint jars .
Seems they would be fine in fried potatoes or with liver .
As a side for steak , as a topping for hotdogs or burgers .
They're canned in a pressure canner , in their own juice , no water added .
Could even go into soups .
I have chopped them fine and frozen some , and they are good in soups and such .

The Spruce / Lisa Fasol
Storing Dry Bulb Onions
The pungent onions harvested in late summer and early fall can be stored for months. They contain sulfurous compounds (the stuff that makes you cry when you cut them) that help to preserve them. To maximize their storage life, store your dry bulb onions in a cool, dry, well-ventilated spot. Do not store them in plastic bags; they need to be able to breathe. Here's a simple, and effective, way to store your dry onions:

What You Need: pantyhose


Inspect all onions for soft spots, mold or other signs of damage. Only perfect onions are suitable for long-term storage. If they are already sprouting, don't think of storing them - use them immediately.
Cut off the legs from a clean pair of pantyhose.
Drop an onion into the foot of the first leg, and tie a knot.
Continue adding onions and tying knots until both legs are full.
Hang the pantyhose in a cool, dry place (a location with a temperature between 40-45 F is ideal).
When you need an onion, simply cut a slit in the side of one of the tied off sections. This will allow you to reuse the pantyhose again and again. Next time, just slip an onion into the section via the slit.

Tips for Storing Dry Bulb Onions
If the onions are homegrown, cure them before storing them. They'll mold if you don't.
Avoid storing onions near other produce. Many fruits and vegetables will absorb the onion's flavor.
Onions can also be stored in mesh bags or long braids.
Expect your onions to last up to eight months in storage. Inspect them often, and remove any that appear to be going bad, so they don't cause the rest of the onions to deteriorate.

Best Onions to Store
While most dry onions store well, some varieties store better than others. Generally, it's the driest varieties that store best.

Storing Cut Onions
It is an urban legend that cut onions are a magnet for bacteria and viruses. In fact, the cut surface of an onion is acidic and has sulfur compounds which inhibit bacteria and mold. This means it's perfectly fine to hang on to a leftover onion, whether you're dealing with half an onion, slices or chopped bits. Just store your extras in a sealed container in the refrigerator, and use them within 7 days. This advice comes directly from the National Onion Association.2

Freezing Onions
You can also freeze sliced or chopped onions to use in recipes, although they won't be as crisp when thawed. Because of this, they work best in cooked dishes. You'll probably be pretty disappointed if you eat them raw.

To freeze your onions, simply chop or slice them into whatever size you prefer (do not freeze them whole). Then, spread them out on a sheet pan, and flash freeze them. Once frozen, transfer your onions to a freezer bag, and squeeze out as much air as you can.

If you have a large quantity of onions to freeze, it's best to work in batches, so the onion smell doesn't overpower everything in your fridge and freezer. Their smell won't be noticeable once they're frozen, but it will be strong until then, and many frozen foods will readily absorb this scent and taste.

Thanks, the dry bulb must be what I remember.

The canning like you're looking into sounds like it could be a way to go.

Ijust keep mine in the cellar where its cool,,and fall onions will last well into spring.Eight months or so.

This is the hard part .
Hang the pantyhose in a cool, dry place (a location with a temperature between 40-45 F is ideal).

Yes, my cellar is warmer than that.

That's where my grandparents kept them. Do you dry them first?

As wolverine reported, I have frozen chopped onions and they do nicely. As he mentioned , they won't be crisp when thawed , but for cooking and mixing with foods they are perfect.

I treat my onions like I do my garlic. When the leaves start to die I pull them and let them air dry in my garage out of the sun. I usually hang them in bunches from the rafters. Onions I pull after most of the leaves are dead. Garlic when the 2 or 3 leaf is dead. After they dry out I cut off the leaves and put in mesh bags and store in a cool dry place. Onions only last me a few months because we use alot. The garlic last me until May.

Not being crispy wouldn't bother me, I'd guess most that we use go into chilli, soups and the likes.

The answers here have me thinking to dry some to use within a couple months and freeze the others.

Thanks to for all the answers.

Something not mentioned here is dehydrated. Onions are about my favorite thing to dehydrate especially for soups and stews and the like. Just chop your onions up and dehydrate them. Many onions will fit in one quart jar once dried and last forever on the counter. Throw a small handful in whatever soup or stew you're making. Works great!

Just air dry so theres no moisture on them.Then in the cellar in milk crates.

I always dug mine then tied them in bunchs by the tops. Gather 8-10 and wrap some twine around the tops and tie it. Leave a tag end and tie a loop. Hang on nails in the house floor joists down in the basement. bring one bunch at a time to the kitchen as needed. they will keep long enough you will have small green onions in your garden next spring.

Stop watering your onions about 2 weeks out form harvest. Then pull them and hang by the top in a shady but warm, breezy spot until the tops dry out and pull right off.
Then you can store them in a cool, dry, dark spot for months.
Trim part of the tops and the roots off before hanging them to dry.
Shallots will keep longer and for me are easier to grow, we're at altitude.

Freezing is perfect for this. We keep gallon freezer bags of diced onions in the freezer door so they are easy to get to. They go into dang near everything we make.

If you have freezer space,,sliced up then vac-packed they freeze very well.

Once their dug in about August, or when the tops die if a storm comes through, they lay on a drying rack in the shed until the temp drops below freezing for the winter then we bag them and keep them cool this year they lasted until a week ago when they started to sprout.