shallots from seed?

I grew them from shallot bulbs I bought at the grocery store. However, I found that the white part of a green onion (scallion) serves as an excellent substitute in cooking; so I no longer grow them.

Hmmm. Interesting. Thank you!

But David, aren't green onions much "sharper" than shallots? Has it made any difference in your cooking/salads?

HB

Green onions might be more sharp than shallots. However, my wife and I prefer highly seasoned foods. For example, where a recipe might call for 2 cloves of garlic we use 3-4.

I bet you're the life of the party

Many years ago in Houston, Texas, we grew something called "multiplying onions" for salad use. Pull up a small bunch of them for a meal, break one off and stick it back in the hole. They never went dormant, never bloomed, never really bulbed, just kept dividing. And they *really* liked the gumbo clay soil where my grandparents lived, but they also grew okay in the acid sandy soil at my parents house in the pines.

They had a little different (richer) taste than green onions, and I now recognize it as shallots. I've been looking for them for years; even drove by the house where my grandparents lived 40 years ago to see if there were still some there. I'm pretty sure now they were a shallot variety "Louisiana Evergreen", which is a sterile triploid or something.

No idea if "Louisiana Evergreen" shallots are still available, or if they will grow up here in the frozen north.

To answer the original question, I grew some shallots from seeds this year, but I planted them too late and the weeds overtook them. I will dig them up this weekend and see what I got. Next year I will plant shallot bulbs from the Oriental market (they are cheap there)

Bob

Hi Bob,

Thank you!

Can I use bulbs from the grocery store?

Since you live in the frozen north, when do you plant yours?

-T

This is the first time I've grown them, and I planted the seeds in the spring. I think you plant bulbs in the fall after the first frost -- although it would probably also work the buy bulbs in late winter, refrigerate them for a month or so, and plant as soon as the ground thaws.

Bob