Planting Shallots

I planted a patch of green onions from seed a few weeks ago and then we mentioned in this post how we planted some from the roots of 'store-bought' green onions.  I thought with all of those planted, we'd be all good as far as green onions goes.  Well, we got some lagniappe the other day.  Lagniappe is "a little something extra" or "a little something for free."  Tricia went by our local feed store to pick up our weekly supply of Dairy Ration, and the store manager told her that he had some leftover shallots that didn't sell.  He asked her if she wanted them - for free?  Well, who turns down something for free?

Tricia brought home the bag of shallots and gave them to me.  I told her I'd find a place for them. Now, we always cook with green onions or onions- we never cook with shallots.  Why?  I don't know.  I guess we've just always seen green onions at local stores around here and have never really noticed shallots.  There is another type of onion that we don't normally use and that is scallions.  Scallions are almost identical to green onions, but scallions make a small bulb, whereas green onions don't.  What are shallots?

Well, this site says that:

Shallots, like onions and garlic, are a member of the allium family, but their flavor is richer, sweeter, yet more potent. Like garlic, they grow in clusters, with several bulbs attached at the base. You'll recognize them by their coppery skins and their off-white flesh, which is usually tinged with magenta. Shallots add a great depth of flavor to pan sautés, soups, sauces, and stews, and pair especially well with chicken and fish. To substitute one for the other in recipes, use half the amount of shallot that you would onion.

A handful of free shallots

Now some of the shallots were not in the best of shape and the garden area was full of winter weeds, so things weren't optimal, but hey, anything we get to grow is a real gift. I quickly worked up the garden soil with a hoe in an area of the garden that is fallow.  I separated the shallot sets into individual cloves and planted them big side down and about an inch deep (or just where the pointy tops are barely buried).  I left the copper-colored "paper" on the shallots as I planted them.  Shallots are similar to garlic in that, as they grow, you want to keep the area weeded and/or mulched as they don't like competition from weeds.

Planting the shallots

The sun was quickly sinking so I had to get the job done quickly.  Soon I had them all planted and covered and now we'll just wait for them to grow.  As they grow, you can use the green shoots just like you do with green onions.

Waiting for the shallots to pop up out of the ground

They'll mature in 90 - 120 days, and you know they are ready for harvest when the leaves start turning brown.  Each clove is supposed to give you 15 or so shallots. You cure them similar to garlic or onions and then store them as you would garlic. After reading about them, I can see why there can be confusion between green onions, scallions, and shallots.  All I know is I'm anxious to try shallots to add nice flavor to our food.

Don't Get Perturbed About The Herbs

We cook with a lot of herbs. In order to have them in close proximity to the kitchen, we have them growing in terra cotta pots out on the back patio.  Right outside the french doors, we have oregano, parsley, and rosemary growing.  Most grow all year long.  Due to the quantity of plants and the size, our basil is located in the garden, so it is not as convenient.  Perhaps I'll grow a basil plant on the patio this spring for cooking purposes and leave the others in the garden for making pesto in large quantities like we frequently do.

Just this past weekend, I started a few pots of parsley, dill and cilantro seeds growing on the back patio.  Fresh parsley smells GREAT all cut up and we love to add bunches of it on top of a steaming bowl of gumbo.  When I was in the grocery store business, we would get some specialty mustard from a company called Inglehoffer.  They made different herbed mustards that came in little glass jars.  My favorite was a dill mustard and I'd like to make some of our own.  Another thing is recently I had a chicken sandwich with dill mayonnaise and although I loathe mayonnaise, it was pretty good.

Finally, cilantro.  We like it in pico de gallo and in Tricia's rice dishes.  Some people love it and some people hate it and say it tastes like soap and smells like stink bugs. This Article tells you why.  It is genetic.  It you hate it, chances are you have the OR6A2 gene that allows you to pick up the scent of aldehyde chemicals.  Those are found in both cilantro and soap.  I almost forgot mint!  We have mint growing out on the back patio as well.  Fresh mint hot tea is real good.

Parsley, Dill, Cilantro and Oregano (not as catchy as Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme)

Green Onions.  Now here is something that I can't get enough of.  I love to add a big, heaping handful on top of a big plate of red beans and rice and sausage.  So Good!  Although I planted a bunch of it from seed recently, they haven't germinated yet and we needed some for a recipe that Tricia was making.  Unfortunately, we had to run to the store and pick up a bunch of commercially grown green onions.

I usually cut the green onions all the way down to the roots and use the whole thing for cooking with, but here's the deal: if the green onions you purchased were in good shape (and why would you purchase them if they weren't), simply keep the roots wet and when you've snipped off the tops, plant them in your garden.  I just planted four of them yesterday as you can see below:

"Recycled" Green Onions

The green onions from the same purchased bunch that I put in the ground last week in the center below were already almost ready to be snipped and used to flavor delicious gumbos, soups, and rice and gravy.  

Grows in NO TIME!!

So while we patiently wait for our green onions planted from seed to grow, we'll have some 'recycled green onions' in inventory while we wait.  I'd like to try planting some other herbs this spring that we haven't used before - like fennel, sage, and thyme.  I also have some lemon balm that I'll get started in early spring.