I know my onions

Today was the day to lift the brown onions so that they can dry off, have their leaves trimmed and be stored in nets hanging from the rafters in the garage. It is a fantastic crop. They are huge.

When I lived and gardened in Britain I always bought onion sets in spring and grew them into grown-up onions. This was the way Dad showed me how to grow them, which he believed was much more reliable than growing them from seed. 

In NZ however it is quite difficult to get hold of onion sets (although multiplying onion sets are common), and I now sow seed in early spring. With great success every year. I wish I could discuss the pro and cons of seeds vs sets with Dad.

I also grow red onions (which Dad never did) which mature slightly earlier than brown ones, and which don't store so long. As a result I begin to lift individual red onions, as I need them in the kitchen, from late January onwards. There are still a dozen or so in the bed, which I shall lift tomorrow and start to dry them too. I will use all of them before starting on the brown ones.

Bean and I were greeted by a fusillade of gunshots when we walked from the new cabin to the truck at dawn this morning. All quite distant thankfully. 

It is the opening day of the duck shooting season and I spied a bevy of mallard, shoveler, NZ scaup and grey teal snuggled into various pools in the creek this afternoon: safely far away from the shooters who have carried on popping off their guns intermittently all day.