Our storage onions spent approximately two weeks curing in the fields and then they made their way into a countless number of crates to be brought in from the fields for storage. They were initially brought to pack out mid-week last week and placed on pallets but the problem with storing them in our pack out is that it is really bright in there and onions needs to be stored in the dark so they don’t begin to sprout.They also need good, dry air circulation so they don’t rot.
We have a shipping container on the opposite side of the farm from the pack out (near the office for those of you who are familiar with the farm) that has been the home to our chest freezers (which are full), potatoes, tools, seeds, kitchen utensils, and winter Dahlia tuber storage. It was decided in our manager meeting last Friday this would be the best place for the onions to live so we could be have a better chance of storing them long enough to have them available for the winter CSA shares. It was a race against the clock to empty everything out of the container, clean it thoroughly, find enough fans around the farm to continually run for constant air circulation, and move the onions over before they were exposed to too much light. By the hard work of Darin & Mike it happened in a couple days! The picture above and to the right is of the onions in black crates on pallets, to the right in the gray Tupperware is most of our seed stock. The shipping container extends 8′ x 26′ and it’s 99% onions in there!!
The most exciting part of the whole process according to Mike was creating vents for air flow. You can create as much air circulation with fans as you want but you need a place for the moisture to escape so Mike cut out and welded in new air vents. I have pictured here one side of the vents Mike made. The other vent is just to the right.