Snow Day

Schools are cancelled and roads are drifted, so that means today is a snow day on the Farmlette.  After digging my way outside (both doors were drifted and frozen shut) and excavating the chicken coops and Bunny Barn, it was so nice to come back inside where it was warm and coffee was waiting on the stovetop.

I'm taking advantage of my day to do a bit of baking, and I'm planting a few more onion seeds.  Today's batch is Ailsa Craig, a  heirloom onion from the island of Ailsa, off the Scottish coast.  These onions are famed for their tremendous size--according to what I've read, they can weigh up to two pounds each--and short shelf-life.  I decided to only start 36 little pods, as I do eat a lot of onions but I'd prefer to commit more space to good keepers.  I started those a few days ago (once my peat pods finally arrived), and I have 112 little pods planted with Yellow of Parma, another heirloom variety that is a good keeper.

112 pods, just waiting for Y of P to sprout.

In past years, I have had very good success with growing Copra, a yellow onion F1 variety.  I really like them, and I will likely grow them again sometime, but like all hybrids it means I need to keep buying seed from the seed company.  Someday, perhaps, I will want to break away from that cycle and use onion seed that I've grown and saved--I'm not quite there with that particular project, of course--and I thought this would be a good year to see how I like a couple of the more commonly available open pollinated heirloom varieties.  You know me and my garden experiments, there is always something I'm trying out.

In other allium family news, the leeks are shooting up.  In just a few days' time, they've grown to be three inches tall.  While slender, they are quite sturdy and seem to be really happy with my homemade planting mix.  Ahh, the powers of worm poop!  I'm going to have to adjust their lights soon, or they will grow up and curl around the bulbs.