Yes, I've found especially this year the onions are nice on the outside, but layers inside can be dark or soft or spoiled. I was blaming the strange weather and the drought, because I normally do not have trouble buying good onions in 3 or 5 pound bags. We grow so many here that in the fall I can buy 20 pound bags and they're good, but not this year.

The ones in the garden weren't bad inside, but they never got very big, they didn't like the heat, so maybe it was a bad onion year?

Annie

I have had problems also! Throw away half a mushy onion. I too blamed it on the weather. I buy individual onions every few days now. The smaller 3 lb bagged onions have just not been good.

Is that why they have been so inexpensive? I bought 3 three pound bags for 59 cents apiece thinking I would make French onion soup but many of them were past prime before I even got a chance to make beef stock.

Di

I noticed a difference in our onions this year, too. My own didn't do well at all. The people who run our local Gleaners Assoc. haul in produce from central WA and I've gotten their onions for the last few years....small hard onions that store really well. This year they're not mushy (yet), but I find I have to peel 2-3 layers, making for realllly small onions. And they're sprouting early, as are my garlic and potatoes....hoping that means an early spring.

I've had the same issue. Another sore point with me is bananas, which I used to always buy. Now, it seems like no matter what store I frequent, the bananas go from green to a weird color/texture to overripe. I can't figure it out.

Sue

From the beginning of recorded history, I have been buying onions in 3 lb. bags and I think they've been fine. I open the bags and dump in the fridge crisper. I know, I know, but I also keep potatoes in the fridge. I supplement the bagged onions with individual reds and sweets. Occasionally there's a baddie in there and I assumed it was just very aged. I've not had any shrinkies.

I've been having the same problem with bagged onions. I really don't like picking out one or two at a time, but that may be what I have to do until I can harvest onions from my garden late this year.

I always buy either those 3 pound bags or pick them up individually from Kwik Trip. The only difference that I've noticed this year is that the bagged onions are running quite a lot smaller than in the past.

I'm with Annie, its probably the strange, hot, dry weather we had for the summer. It almost sounds like blossom end rot that tomatoes get, although I've never heard of onions getting it. It happens from inconsistent watering. The fruit or veggie can't can't take up the nutrients (calcium and nitrogen) it needs and starts to rot from the inside out.

Glad to hear it's not just my local grocers. I will go back to choosing individual onions, even tho it may "seem" to cost more!

I tried growing onions last summer....total failure. For some odd reason I have absolutely no luck with any kind of root vegetable. I'll keep trying, tho.

Linda

I too buy singles now,same problem with bagged.Last week bought a bag of green giant potatoes all were green.I always heard dont eat green potatoes.

Same here (northern VA) with our onions. Dear husband likes to buy bags of produce and it never seems to pay off. He likes to do the grocery shopping, but I find I'm having to go get produce on my own because I feel like I really, really need to pick through things.

I guess I haven't noticed any difference in quality - I've gotten bad and good onions both ways. I prefer the bagged onions simply because they are smaller.

I've been very disappointed with oranges this year, too. I'm sure that must be weather related.

Sally

bulldinkie, green potatoes are ones that have been exposed to sun or other light. The green is a compound that is actually toxic, although you'd have to eat an awful lot of them to get sick.

The problem with green potatoes is that they can be bitter. I use them, cutting off all the green, but that's a waste of a lot of the potato.

Annie

Oh, I thought they were freezing in my fridge, hence they were mushy when I cut into them.

I've never bought individual onions....always buy 3 or 10 lb bags (when the 10 lbs are $1.88)

I keep my onions in my crisper.

Sally, yes on the oranges too. Also, the clementines have been horrible. Last bag Christy brought home, over half were moldy, soft or totally rotten already. Last year I kept getting and eating clementines till May I think.

Onions have been bad for sure. The ones that are hard have so many tough layers that are inedible it's ridiculous. Christy is not great about figuring out how many layers to take off and then we end up with most of the onions in a dish having to be set aside as you try to eat them. Frustrating. Farmers have been at the mercy of weather and the past year was a doozy.

Sweet onions are normally short day onions and they are not long keeping onions. Onions come in short day, intermediate, and long day types. This means that they don't begin to bulb until the day length is sufficient. Sweet onions like Texas 1015s and Vadalia are short day types and grown in the south where the days are shorter. The long day types are great for the northern US and they will keep longer than the sweet onions.

The number on the Texas 1015 is because that is when they are planted in parts of Texas (Oct 15). An onion needs to have lots of blades before it begins to bulb because each blade (leaf) will become a layer on the onion, so to get big onions you need lots of leaves.

If you would like to learn more about onions look at the Dixondale Farms website. Lots of good info there.

soonergrandma, I usually get my onions from Dixondale in the form of plants, they grow better in my growing season and climate than the onion sets do.

However, this year even the Dixondale plants didn't do well. It was too hot and I couldn't give them enough water to do well, although we ran the sprinkler for hours.

So, mine didn't do well and none of the farm markets around me had great onions this year either.

Annie

Since the subject is onions, I have a question that I hope isn't too off topic. I have an oven stew recipe that I love to make when the weather is cold. It has onion wedges in it and they never seem to be totally cooked lately (when the rest is done). Is this because I'm using the wrong kind of onion (yellow), need to cut them smaller or is it just the current year onions?

Could be the onions. Drought stressed onions are going to be smaller and have smaller rings/ less moisture content so it would make sense that they might take longer to cook through. Try cutting smaller wedges, baking the stew longer or nuking the onions a bit before adding to the stew.

I like buying onions in the 10-lb bag when they come on sale, but they are so small. And the small ones are quite a bit hotter which I don't like.

I didn't think of the drought causing the small growth.