2023 UMaine Extension Onion Order
This year’s personal onion order is closed. Stay tuned for 2024!
It’s Almost Onion Time!
The Onion Order is open now to all Master Gardener Volunteers, their friends and families, and University of Maine Cooperative Extension staff members.
Onion plants can be picked up at the Extension offices that you choose that are listed in the dropdown menu when ordering on the order form.
You will pay for the onions when you order them — that is new this year! The “Pay it Forward” option is back and we hope you will support our many projects with free onion plants.
About the UMaine Extension Onion Order
Since 2017 the Harvest for Hunger Program has made a bulk onion order form available to Master Gardeners and used the proceeds from those sales to subsidize onion plants for Harvest for Hunger Projects to grow onions for the community.
We work directly with the growers at Dixondale Farms in Texas to buy bulk bunches of onion plants. We have taken the guesswork out of what will grow here in Maine.
The varieties offered in full bunches (50-75 plants per bunch) are the easiest and most popular to grow. The plants offered in half bunches are more novelty or specialty varieties.
Order Deadline: Friday, January 20, 2023
If you need technical assistance with this order form or payment using the order form, please contact us at extension.gardening@maine.edu, call 207.581.3188 or toll-free 1.800.287.0274 (in Maine).
How to Grow Onions
There are three ways to grow onions, from seed, from a set, or from a plant (Video: The Three Ways to Grow Onions: Seed, Sets, or Transplants, Dixondale Farms, YouTube). If you have never grown onions we have a great resource to help you succeed from our friends at UNH (Blog Post: How do I get my onions to grow bigger?, UNH Extension).
If you purchase onions from us, you will receive periodic reminder emails about what to be doing throughout the season to have a successful crop.
Once You’ve Grown Onions, a Recipe for You:
Dixondale Farms offers its very own Slow Cooker 5 Onion Soup recipe on its website.
Projects:
Note to Project Coordinators: If you coordinate a Maine Harvest for Hunger community garden, school garden, etc, and grow food for Harvest for Hunger, and ordered last year, your project request order form link will be sent to you at a later date (late January). If you manage a project and did not order last year, please contact Lynne Holland: (email lynne.holland@maine.edu or call 207.581.8211) by January 20 to get added to the list.
If you are not already listed as a Maine Harvest for Hunger Project you can contact your county coordinator and they will get you added to the list of projects. We will cover as many projects as possible this year as we have funds, a $10 donation can mean a couple of hundred pounds of onions this summer.
Pay it Forward
Would you like to help provide onion plants for Harvest for Hunger projects? Your donation will be pooled with others to help fill requests from these projects. Let us know how much you’d like to donate and we’ll select a project and get the onions to them!
- Proceed to the order form, choose the dropdown to pay forward $10, and provide approximately 180 onion plants to projects.
- Can’t “pay it forward” right now? There’s an option in the dropdown on the order form for that as well.
- Would you like to pay forward a different amount? Choose that option in the dropdown, then enter your own amount… every dollar helps!
Onions:
Please visit the Dixondale Farms* website by clicking the linked text below for an onion variety description and photo. However, please use our Onion Order Form to order from UMaine Extension.
The following varieties may only be ordered in full bunches: $4/bunch (approximately 60 plants)
- Ailsa Craig (Dixondale Farms)
- Long Day Onion Assortment (Dixondale Farms)
- Patterson, White Storage Onion (Dixondale Farms)
- Red Zeppelin, Red Onion (Dixondale Farms)
The following varieties may only be ordered in half bunches: $2.50/half bunch (approximately 30 plants)
- Red Torpedo Tropea (Dixondale Farms)
- Cipollini (Dixondale Farms)
- Yellow Spanish Onion (Dixondale Farms)
Leeks and Shallots:
$5/half bunch (approximately 30 plants)
If you are a person with a disability and need an accommodation to participate in this program, or would like to discuss any other barriers to participation, please email lynne.holland@maine.edu or call Lynne Holland at 207.581.8211 or 800.287.1458 (in Maine) to discuss your needs. Receiving requests for accommodations at least 10 days before the program provides a reasonable amount of time to meet the request, however, all requests will be considered.
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