Seasons of the Onions (Allium sp.) in SE Wisconsin

It took me a few years of farming before I fully embraced the concept that at certain times of the season, cured bulb onions were just not ready yet.

We stopped buying bulb onions at the store, and started using whatever was around in the onion family at that time. During the fall and winter months, there are plenty. But when they run out or sprout, and things are all an inch tall in the greenhouse, what can you do?

Field of onions for curing

Spring season onions: March-early June

In the spring there are chives, chives flowers, garlic chives, some wild onions which you can read more about here, and leeks, if they overwintered well in the hoop house. By this time a lot if not all of the garlic and onions have sprouted or been used up. We also save the trimmings of the onion seedlings in the greenhouse, which helps them eventually bulb up and keep from falling over too soon. By May and into June we will have garlic scapes available.

Summer season onions: late June-September

Summer is when the fresh bulbed onions arrive, including the Red Long of Florence and Cipollini. The greens may be attached and can be used in food when still green. We also will have summer leeks, more chives, and scallions. Garlic gets harvested in July, and onions for curing will be harvested beginning in September.

Fall Season onions: October-December

Fall is when we begin to have the finished product of a cured, shelf-stable garlic, shallot, and onion product. We save 40% of our largest garlic crop for seed, which gets planted out in November. Chives may persist if conditions are mild. Fresh, uncured bulb onions are good this time as well!

Winter: “The Hunger Moon(s)” January-March

Winter is when a small scale harvest is available on a very season-by-season basis, due to variations in winter weather. We typically offer a variety of storage crops such as winter squash, potatoes, topped root crops, kale, thyme, mint, onions and garlic, shallots, and more at a local brick-and-mortar farmer’s market in Port Washington called Dream Port Market. We also vend at the Port Washington Winter Market every other Saturday through the winter/early spring months.