Shallots, clay and green garlic…

As I was taking a new picture of a nice shallot flower …

…I noticed that the shallot cluster in the tip of one the same triangular bed had withered – that is the leaves had started to die back. I haven’t grown shallots before but this is what I am expecting when the whole lot of them are ready for harvest. In this case I was more concerned with a potential disease issue since the one cluster was the only one that had browned and died back.

The bed is one of my laziest; I put it in on a whim before I started in earnest on the ones behind the fence. It has a clay based soil mix in it- the clay plus some organic matter and vermiculite worked in. The serious wave of storms this spring clogged the downspout near the bed and several waterfalls dumped into it before I could address the issue.

Q: Does clay + waterfalls = rotted shallots?

A: Yes

The one clump was totally rotted; I noticed that tip of the bed was mostly clay as compared to the rest. Apparently I didn’t mix it in quite as well as I thought…..

I used this as an excuse to pull the next clump – I figured I’d eat them like green onions or green garlic.

Not bad:

Later I peeled on down to add to a stir fry- it was very mild but had a great flavor.. you can see the classic shallot shape developing in the halves.

Speaking of green garlic…. The plate behind contains a green onion and some delicious green garlic- basically a freshly pulled immature bulb, used before the cloves completely develop and the skins dry. I WILL plant extra to harvest this way next year…

Sliced:

Google “green garlic” and salivate…