My Pet Peppermint Pelargonium

There is nothing quite like a scented geranium for a plant to use as a pet substitute. It has all the advantages. It's soft fuzzy leaves are pretty close to fur. It doesn't purr, but it does release a wonderful scent when it is stroked and as a nice thank you when it is watered. Occasional watering and removal of any less than great looking leaves is all the care required. No litter box or walks outside in the snow are needed. It stays where it is put and never hides under the bed or chews your shoes. This peppermint geranium is a descendant of the one I purchased at Caprilands in 1993.

Snow still falls on the garden outside the window. We are inside surrounded by garden catalogs, but the one we want at the moment has not yet arrived. We order our onion plants from Dixondale Farms. This year their catalogs were lost in the mail. I can get pretty impatient waiting, so I went to their website and downloaded this years' order form. Tomorrow I will call and get that onion order done by phone. Perhaps then the catalog will finally arrive in the mail. We have had such great results growing onions from plants. Braids of onions still hang in the basement for winter use even though the weather here this summer was less then perfect for great onion growth. Our Walla Wallas were a wash out. This year, I think we'll get the Copras, Red Zeppelins, Sterlings and Red Marble Cippolinis.

The Last Of The Copras

Preparing today's pumpkin soup for lunch did it. I used the last of the copra onions. Nothing remains of the braid but the string and dried stems. I'm surprised and pleased to have red onions store this long. With the copras gone, the red onions won't last now. I still have lots of potato onions and shallots. I'm so glad because it pains me terribly to have to buy onions in the store.

It's a sunny , blue sky day. With the new snow it's downright dazzling out there. Right now there are drips from the eaves on the south side of the house, but nothing yet on the north side. Perhaps this afternoon the temperature will creep above freezing and melt some more snow.

Ed just came in from outside. Soup's on!

Copra Onion Harvest

It's time , if not a little past time, to get the Copra onions harvested and braided for storage. This year we planted 16 rows of onion plants. The plants were 6" apart in rows 8" apart. If you do the math that is 128 onions, but we had one double so it is 129. These onions did really well this year. Their size is great. Most are about the size of a baseball, but the largest one weighs in at over 3/4 of a pound. They look good. I only hope there are no bad rings from all the moisture we have had this summer.

Now that's what I call an onion! The big problem has been finding a dry day to harvest them. In the end we had to place them on screens in the basement with the dehumidefier to dry. I'm now in the process of cleaning them and making braids. I find they store the very best when braided. I do this with garden twine doubled and weave the stems in and out so that the string can support the weight of the onions. I'm afraid some of these may fall and go bump in the night because their stems are already brown. If that happens, the onions that fall will be used first.