I harvested all the shallots last night, with the exception of the 3 plants I left to flower. I’m so happy with my first real garden harvest of the year. It was great to get home, pull an armload of shallots (and rhubarb) from my car, and have the neighbour ask me if the Farmers Market was running on Saturday now.
They were fun, for a first time shallot grower, and I will definitely be growing them again. Watching the separate bulbs form was pretty interesting. Most only broke into 2 divisions, but I had a few 3’s and two with 4 divisions.
I planted 20 bulbs, (one package from ‘Florissa’, and one from ‘McKenzie Seeds’) and 17 were alive. I lost one to gopher nibbles, and I left 3 to flower. So out of the 13 plants, I got 32 bulbs, which I am pretty ecstatic about.
My plan for next year, is to save a couple of this years bulbs, but also buy in some more, so I am increasing from year to year. It is the same as my garlic plan really.
They all tried to go to seed, and I am curious what I can do next year to help prevent this. I snapped off the seed heads as soon as I saw them forming (with the exception of the 3 that I left). If you have any tips or tricks for me, leave them in the comments below.
The Crafty Cultivator 
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