Category Archives: shallots

Shallots harvested

I have always planted both garlic and shallots in October and I got the garlic planted in the ground last year in late October of 2018 but not the shallots. I ran out of time and then all the shallot bulbs were sold out. I know we can get bigger garlic bulbs if we plant in the previous fall (which I already harvested) and thought the shallots would be bigger too if planted in the fall. But I decided to plant some dutch shallots this spring to see how they would do as I really love shallots. I just found out I should plant french shallots in the fall and can plant the dutch shallots in either the fall or spring! They have a more delicate flavor than onions. I harvested them about a week ago and they are magnificent!

They are huge and I got many of them from about 10 bulbs. I picked them when the stalks fell down and started dying. They are now curing on the bench in a protected shady area on my portal. Curing means letting the stalks dry out completely before I take them off. The skins should be dry and be sure not to wash the dirt off. You can just rub off the dirt after curing. What a pleasant surprise for me!

Review of 2012 vegetables

fall harvest

2012 VEGGIE LIST

Here is my review of what I will and won’t grow again from last year’s vegetables that I tried and why. I will put tomatoes in another list since there are so many of them!

WILL GROW AGAIN
ARUGULA
-Apollo-nice leaf size and flavor

BEANS
-Rattlesnake bean/pole-remarkably flavored pole bean-grows very tall-great for trellises or arbor
-Tarbais bean/pole-dry bean-after much work FINDING IT last year in the states, you can now get this wonderful bean from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds this year. I will make a french dish called cassoulet with it.
-Fava Bean/bush-wonderful flavor and 2 crops last year. A little work shelling it twice but worth it. Also is a good cover crop replenishing the soil with nitrogen.
-Golden Scarlet Runner/pole-I grow runners for their flowers/foliage-the foliage on this one is a striking chartreuse color against the scarlet flowers-simply beautiful

BEETS
– Craupadine-BEST tasting (but ugly) beet around
-Cylindra-long cylinder shape, great taste, easy cutting into slices

BOK CHOY
-Extra Dwarf Pak Choy-wonderful flavor-I like to cut one in half, saute it in olive oil, and add tamari when you flip it

CARROTS
-Atomic Red-great color and flavor
-Cosmic Purple-one of my favorites

CHARD
-Bright Lights-adds great color tucked into the garden and good flavor
-Argentata-thick juicy stalks with huge leaves-very cold tolerant
-Ruby Red-one of the prettiest and tasty chards out there

CUCUMBERS
-Parisian Pickling-used for making cornichon pickles
-Boothsby Blonde-used for making bread and butter pickles
-Poona Kheera-best flavor for eating
-Armenian– fun to grow, good flavor, few seeds

EGGPLANT
-Fairy Tale-sweet, no bitter taste and tender (not tough) skin

LETTUCES
–Provencal Mix, Mesclun Mix, Buttercrunch, Yugoslavian Red, Santoro Lettuce

PEAS
-Dwarf Sugar Gray-great in salads or steamed, grows about 3 ft tall

PEPPER–want to try some different varieties from Europe this year as well
-Shishito (Japanese non-hot pepper)-one of my favorites
-Poblanos-mildly hot (I call it warm), great for chile rellanos or scrambled eggs, wonderful smoky flavor

POTATOES–first year grower and I’m hooked!
-French Fingerling-OMG, the best flavor!
-Peruvian Purple-I loved the flavor of these as well

SPINACH
-Bloomsdale and Tyee

SUMMER SQUASH
ZUCCHINI
-Costata Romanesco-best tasting zuke around

SUNFLOWERS-technically a flower but they are veggies for the birds!
-will grow another huge patch of different varieties-beautiful and the birds love them
-Russian Mammoth AND Titan– for us/birds to eat
-Black Oil-for the birds only

TOMATILLO-Green-good for tomatillo salsa-only need one plant as they are so prolific.

WON’T GROW AGAIN
BEAN-Emerite bean/pole bean- great flavor but didn’t grow high enough to cover my teepee and I will grow others this year.

CARROTS
-Paris Market-too small, bland flavor, not impressed

CALABICITAS SQUASH
-seed from local grower-turns out it was a native winter squash, not calabacitas squash.

CORN-again not this year (I’ll get it from our Farmers Market)

FENNEL/FINOCCHIO
-Di Firenze-might grow one or two but not 25 plants like last year!

PEPPER
-Jalapeno-I don’t use them enough to call for space in the garden. I’ll just buy the few I use throughout the year.

POTATOES
-Russian Banana-too crunchy and watery

Curing shallots

I grow shallots instead of onions. Why? Because shallots are $4.99/pound and onions are cheap. Besides they taste wonderful sautéed in any dish. This season I grew Dutch shallot bulbs that I got from Payne’s nurseries here in Santa Fe. I like them a lot as they are not tiny like some other shallots are. So this weekend I picked all the shallots that I started last October-November. I got a ton! Well not quite, but a lot! Here is a picture of  them ‘curing’. Curing shallots is about properly drying them so they last longer in storage for winter. After you pick them you need to let them dry out completely before cutting off the stems which takes about 3 weeks. Then cut off the stems when they are dry, put them in a mesh bag and put in a cool dark place. Where do I get mesh bags? Trader Joes puts their lemons and onions in mesh bags and I save them to use for my shallots and garlic that I grow.

What have I been doing?

I’ve been busy in the garden! It is ALMOST  finished. I have 8 more tomatoes to plant tomorrow that I forgot to get that are some of my standards at the SF Farmer’s Market. OPPS! But they will be ready in time.

Two weekends ago I had 7 friends/family help with planting the majority of the tomatoes. A great big THANK YOU to all that helped-Elodie, Flynn, Ronnie, Lava, Tom, Sharon and myself! I couldn’t have done it without you! I also have a few more flower seeds to plant by the entry. Otherwise it’s done-FINITO! Yea right-there is always something to do in the garden! Here are some of the things happening in the garden:

The fava beans are looking good. Here they are flowering. I like the black and white flowers. I don’t think I’ve ever seen black and white flowers on a plant before. They had some aphids so I sprayed them with insecticidal soap and they are looking better. They have baby fava beans on them now.

The beets and carrots are coming along quite nicely. They are outside the pole bean tent area and will fill in nicely

Here are some beet greens I harvested while thinning out the beets to give them room to grow. They are yummy in a salad and are so beautiful.

In the shadiest part of the garden I planted some bok choi and lettuce and have had it covered with row cover since planting to help keep them from the heat and bugs. They both are looking great. I’ve never grown bok choi before so I’ll have to research when to harvest as they are getting to be pretty big and won’t like the heat for too long.

The fennel bulbs are getting bigger and are almost ready to harvest. Maybe another 2 weeks. They also won’t do well in the heat. I wonder if they will get as big as the ones in the grocery store..

About half of the tomatoes I previously planted are growing out of the top of the wall of waters and I need to take them off before it gets too difficult.

It’s been fun growing some early stuff. The bok choi, fava beans, fennel and lettuce are more cool season crops and will have to be harvested soon because of the heat. Probably all of them will be harvested BEFORE July.

I also have potatoes that are growing through the roof, strawberries that are being harvested and rhubarb that is ready to pick but will save that for other posts.

Shallot Scapes!

The last few days I’ve harvested shallot scapes. They are just like garlic scapes in that they are the flower bulb. I pick it before it opens so all its energy will go into making the bulbs below the ground larger.

They are really delicious sautéed. We already made an omelet with cheese, spinach and scapes and also in some fried rice. If you see them on your shallots or garlic, cut them off  but don’t throw them away!

Garlic coming up nicely

 

The garlic I planted last fall in November is already 8 inches tall and growing like weeds! I just love planting it in the fall, putting straw over it and watering it maybe once a month in winter. It is the first thing to come up in early spring and will be ready for harvest sometime in late June-early July. Such an easy crop to grow and a must grow for cooks. Nothing like cooking with fresh garlic. Plus a bonus is bugs don’t like it and rabbits don’t like it-nice! This year I grew both hardneck garlic which tastes great and softneck garlic which lasts a long time. Just be sure to save some of the biggest cloves to plant for next fall. Bigger cloves=bigger bulbs the following year!

French Shallots!

Long French red shallot-courtesy of Au Potager

Bonjour! I just read a post on Au Potager’s page on ‘Shallot Wars’ and what the difference is between French shallots and Dutch shallots. Great post and very informative about the three varieties of French shallots. The French think their varieties (which are grown from bulbs) are much better than the Dutch variety (which can be grown from seed). At the end she writes that she didn’t think you could get the french varieties in the US (she lives in France) and if anyone in the US finds a source for them to let her know.

So I researched it online and found a source! The French varieties can be found at John Scheeper’s Kitchen Garden Seeds here. I love shallots and their flavor-more delicate than onions and no tears!  Great in vinegarettes, or sauteed and put in sauces.

French Grey shallot-courtesy of Au Potager

I’ve grown a red shallot variety before (not sure if it was the french type) but I’m going to try the ‘French Red shallot’ this spring and grow the French Gray Shallot’ (which is suppose to be the best) next fall—that’s when your suppose to plant the grey variety. Shallots originated in Palestine, need full sun and good soil drainage. They do well here in Santa Fe. John Scheeper’s Kitchen Garden seed catalog page above gives some great planting instructions for them so go there to get them. Au revoir!!