Too Many Onions

I have a few raised garden beds that needed to be moved this spring, after many years in one place. One of the of the best and most reliable vegetables in one of the beds has been these onions,which originally grew in the garden of my grandfather. He made his home in mid Michigan, and I am sure these onions are about 100 years old. Well, not THESE onions, but the ones before... well, you know what I mean.... Anyway, many years ago my sister dug up some of the onions from my grandfather's garden, and planted some in her home. Since then, she has moved a few times, but always taking some of the onions with her. Then, about 10 years ago, I brought some to my garden.

Now, these onions, while really good growers, are not really good to eat. They are VERY hot. My grandfather apparently liked really hot onions.

This is my grandpa on the right, with my uncle and my mom. They are standing in front of his really big garden in central Michigan. 1940 something, I am sure.

I keep calling this Grandpa's garden. It was Grandma's too. See the garden in the background, behind her washing? (Obviously this photo was taken on a Monday...)

ok, back to the moving of the raised beds. So, what happened was that there were too many onions to move, so I had to pull a lot out. I can't really EAT them, they are just too dang hot!

So, I thought I would try drying them. I wanted to make onion powder. I have this book, which I love, and I thought maybe onion powder would be in there. But, it was not. In any case, you would love this book.

So, left to my own creativity, and using my own brain.... Oh Oh....

First, I pulled and washed them.

Then, I cut them as small as I could.

I put them on a cookie sheet, and left them in a room for a week. The reason I had to kind of isolate them, is that when I had them on the cookie sheet in the kitchen the whole house smelled so strongly of onions! So, I put them in my office and closed the door. For a week!

If you don't live in a dry climate as I do, you may have to dry them in the oven. I would think to set them in the oven at the lowest setting for overnight. Then, turn the oven off and leave them in the oven for several hours as they cool.

This is how they looked when they were dry.

The first thing I tried was to put the dry onions was to place them in the food processor. This made them small, but not quite small enough.

So, I tried a rolling pin....

Hmmmm......Still not quite tiny enough. I really wanted onion powder...

So, I tried this....

Finally, good results. I liked how small the onion flakes became, although it was not onion powder.

I feel like it was similar to this product

So, then I placed the dry flaked onions in a jar with a label, and put them in the pantry.

My sister uses the ones I sent to her, and she loves the texture. And the miracle is that when I use them in cooking, they do not have that extra hot fire that Grandpa loved so much! (Sorry, Grandpa!)