Monday, August 15, 2011

Garlic vs Shallots

The gardens are growing!
  At last!
Delight Delight Delight
 
I'm harvesting peas finally and there are tiny beans on the bush beans

Lots of salads here, the lettuces finally look very good.  Eat yours while they are tender

Now for the Garlic vs Shallots issue.

I pulled all of mine and my shallots stayed small
but here is a photo. 

The shallots grow next to one another so close they can look like a garlic. 
But the garlic we grew this year was white or red streaked
and the shallot is golden.

The garlic has sword like leaves coming from a central stem
Shallots have many individual green tube like leaves.
  The number depends on the grouping of bulbs.

 There are two kinds of garlic
Hard neck and soft neck.

Hard neck has a nice stiff stem down the 
middle and the cloves grow around the stem.
The soft neck act like artichokes with cloves growing
over one another like the leaves of an artichoke.
You can use garlic fresh from the garden but I like it better in a month
it's so wet when I pull it, but tasty.  It gets stronger tasting with storage.


Shallots act like a multiplier onion
The bulbs multiply freely producing several lateral bulbs
The green tube like stems can be cut and used like green onions but the 
very best way to eat Shallots is sauteed in butter. 
They are creamy and sweet and I can't get enough of them.
Perfect in gravy's and sauces or just 
sauteed and laid on top of a roasted chicken breast.  



4 comments:

Jessica said...

I am so happy to be seeing so much more growth now! :) We have harvested a lot of beans (we pre-sprouted them inside) onions, and peas, and lettuce is doing great. We have been eating a lot of salads. Chard is still producing as well.

Fonnell/Grammie/mom said...

Jessica,
You two are such great gardeners! I love to hear what you are doing. Do you need any seeds for the fall planting? (really late summer) I still have some of several veggies.

Jessica said...

Thanks, Fonnell :) We only get great results because of all of your help! What veggie seeds do you have? We might be interested.

Fonnell/Grammie/mom said...

most everything except carrots, we used all of those up. kale, chard, lettuce, beets, lots of beets, I ordered garlic I'll let you know when it arrives.

Ask and I will look and see what kinds I have.