October/Alliums esp. Garlic

October in The Garden

In all the books from back east and England, you'll find fall as a season of 'going to rest,' 'putting the garden to bed' and other allusions to 'sleep' and restoration. It is not true for us! We are in our other Spring and this Spring is really much more like the Spring other parts of the world experience. This is our shot at carrots, peas, and other cool season plants. We either have all our space filled with plants, or we've just got a part planted with big plans (dreams) for the rest. So the Winter garden is just beginning its full swing.

I tried to plant one chard plant because I only need one to provide me with enough chard for all my needs, but there are so many colors to choose from, I feel a need to grow at least three: yellow, red and I love the orange. These plants provide continuous chard over a long season, negating the need for succession planting. Almost everything else benefits by being sowed at intervals throughout the season, a process called 'succession sowing' or 'succession planting.'

Succession planting is the mark of a really good gardener. This is a person who plants a garden to get to eat the very freshest of food – you don't pick your veggies and put them in the fridge to age before you eat them – that isn't the intent. To the degree possible, only plant enough of what can be eaten in a reasonable amount of time. As a single person, I have found that a twelve to eighteen inch row for most things is the perfect size to grow enough to supply fresh carrots, beets, parsnips, cutting lettuces, for any given time. A typical planting schedule for me might look like this (in parenthesis, I name the varieties I like):

Week 1 – carrots (Cosmic Purple)	Week 7 - lettuce (Drunken Woman Frizzy Head)
Week 2 – beets (Golden)	Week 8 – carrots (Nantes)
Week 3 – parsnips (Hollow Crown)	Week 9 – beets (Red Ball)
Week 4 – carrots (Armadillo)	Week 10 – spinach (America)
Week 5 – beets (Chioggia)	Week 11 – turnips (Purple Globe)
Week 6 – turnips (DeMilano)	Week 12 – beets (Golden)

Quickly you see that, though I do eat parsnips and turnips, I don't eat nearly as many of them as I do carrots or beets. Your situation might be different in that you could care less at all about ANY parsnips, but spinach is near and dear to your heart so you would have spinach in the rotation much more than I do. Also note, that only one of the carrots, Nantes, is orange. Cosmic Purple you have already guessed is purple and Armadillo is yellow. There are other colors and other varieties out there, don't get boxed in by what you are used to! Enjoy diversity! Diversity in nature is a a sign of strength and resiliency.

You can do the same thing, for a larger family by planting three different things per week – carrots, beets and spinach in week one; turnips, lettuce and parsnips in week two; carrots, beets and parsnips in week three. Or spinach, one row, every week all cool season long. Tailor the program to your needs! You might also find that you need longer rows – I wouldn't imagine that an 18” row would suffice for a family of four! Play around with the scheduling and the row length and the mix of plants you grow until you find what your family needs. At which point, their needs will change, but you'll have a lot more data with which to figure out the new schedule.

One of the marks of a very good gardener is succession sowing down to such a science allowing fresh vegetables on the table without lag time or a concentration of over-abundance and wild fluctuations leaving you with nothing from the garden for intervening weeks. Learning how to do this well has been the work of a lifetime for many and, as for me, I still find it a moving target. But at least I know what I’m shooting for!

Start These In Containers	Start These In The Ground	Move to the Ground from Containers
All cabbage family crops Fava beans	Fava beans Lettuce	Any cabbage family plant big enough to survive.
Leeks	Potatoes (tubers)	Leeks
	Carrots	Herbs
	Lentils
	Peas
	Garbanzo beans
	Garlic (bulbs)
	Shallots (bulbs)

Here is the deal with winter sowing – you can continue to sow all winter crops through November. After November, we need to begin to look at the harvest dates. Before November is out, you will need to have all your onion family plants in the ground. These include garlic, leeks, onions and shallots. They take a long time. Celery and celeriac, another long season grower, should probably not be planted after November as well. Carrots and parsnips can be planted deep into December, but after that, look for smaller carrots that will be done before your world heats up.

You can cheat – this isn't mathematics where the answer is right or it's wrong. Often the answer in gardening is “it depends.” There are perimeters of hot and cold, sun and shade that we work with. There are no hard and fast rules about when to plant what – mostly just guidelines. You can lose – even when you don't cheat. I know, it is unfair, but it's part and parcel of growing food and you can see why many books from antiquity regularly address putting food in storage and consciously regard famine as an ever-present problem to be dealt with.

If you plant one thing on one date every year, in at least one of those in seven years will not work out for you. Not your fault. The weather is not the same every September 5^th. Or any other day in the calendar. If you could predict the weather out for 6 months or so, you'd be very rich. But this has been the problem of food growers from the beginning. And climate change has made it even more forbidding. There are years when I'm watching baby tomato plants struggle in late May I wish I had planted beets instead – any we may well find that is the way we do things – start tomatoes AND plant beets at the same time.

Butternut Squash With Pecans And Blue Cheese

I've done this annually for many years and it's always been a hit! I know grilling in the fall seems like I missed the summer boat, but really, in Southern California, we can grill almost year round, avoiding windy days during dry season. Any sweet, hard skin winter squash will suffice; butternut is only one of the many that will work.

4-1/2 lbs butternut squash

3 tablespoons olive oil

6 stalks fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 cup pecans

1 cup crumbled Roquefort or other blue cheese

Get the grill going and warmed up.

Halve the squash, leaving the skin on, and scoop out the seeds, then cut into two to three inch cubes; you don't need to be precise, just keep the pieces uniformly. Smaller, they fall thru the grill.

Mix the squash in a bowl with the oil adding thyme. Cook on the grill until just tender enough to eat.

From the grill, throw them into a bowl with crumbled blue cheese and pecans and mix. The hot cheese will hold pecan pieces to the squash. Serve at once. You may eat the entire squash, skin and all.

Alliums

When we sow seeds of most of our food plants, they show up with two little leaves right off the bat. Those cute little leaves are technically called “cotyledons” and the ones with two leaves are appropriately called “dicotyledons” - the “di” meaning two. Gardeners often shorten this to “dicots.”

“Alliums” refer to all plants in the “onion” family. All alliums have only one little leaf and therefore are called “monocotyledons” or, more often, “monocots.” This gives you some of the botanical background on these plants. As far as evolution goes, monocots are much newer on the scene than dicots. Monocots, like dicots, describes a very large group of plants, but we know dicots came first and monocots are the newcomers. Monocots include palm trees, grasses, all the grains (which are grasses) and are very diverse and adaptable. In fact, if you consider that dicots have been around a couple of thousands of years and then take note of all the land occupied by monocots, you can see with your own eyes how adaptable these monocots are! Who wrote that line, “I am the grass, I cover all...?” It was an honest and perceptive observation.

Allium is a group of plants that includes hundreds of species, including the cultivated onion, garlic, scallion, shallot, leek, and chives. There are less planted species like clumping onions, 'walking' onions and others – but they share a sharp odor and taste. They are usually used in some moderation as flavor additives and not the star on their own. They appear in cuisines from all over the world.

The American food system has done a horrible job with these plants. The preoccupation with profit – often with merit given OUR preoccupation with the price of our food – has led most supermarkets to stock only one of two varieties of garlic - “California Early” or “California Late.” Read descriptions of these garlics and rarely does “taste” come up as an attribute – the number one quality of these two garlics is their ability to withstand rotting.

Also, check out the prices on shallots. One of the more expensive tastes in the fresh veggie area of the store. However, shallots are easier to grow than onions! Which are not that easy to grow in our climate.

No matter which alliums you choose to grow, they are, for the most part, easy. While they are all similar in many ways, there are details to know about each.

All Alliums: Plant in fall. Pointy end up. Scarred end down. No need to cover clove. Slow from seed. Usually can find sets/plants. Senescence of leaves indicates harvest time is nigh. Cut back water. Knock over tops that have not fallen. Allow to cure for a few days. Harvest should be dried for a further two weeks sheltered from direct sun and stored in a cool, dark place away from potatoes. Some folks swear by storing onions in small brown paper bags punched with holes. Do not plan on storing alliums for more than four months, unless you have ideal circumstances.

Onions

Let's start with this ubiquitous ingredient in our cuisine. Like all alliums, onions for us are a Fall/Winter crop. There are many different types – some of which have national recognition. Let's start out with the well-knowns, like Walla Walla, Vidalia and from California, Imperial Valley Sweet Onions. While the Imperial Valley Sweet might be able to be grown in your garden, most of the others cannot and if they could, would not have the same sweetness because their sweetness, in part, is a function of the particular soil and climate they are grown in.

Only a few years ago, seed catalogs used to indicate the different “day length hours” for each onion variety. Different types of onions have different light (and dark) requirements. The varieties of onions that require a shorter period (11 to 13 hours) of daylight to bulb are termed "short day" onions. Those that require the longest period of daylight (14 hours per day or more) to form bulbs are known as "long day" onions. Those with intermediate requirements (from 13 to 14 hours of light per day to bulb) are called, logically, "intermediate" onions.

In Southern California, we need short day onions – ones that will bulb up in our winters – the intermediates will work too, if planted later in the season, although an early hot spell can doom them. But with seed catalogs not telling us the day length, what do you do? Choose varieties that have names that indicate they would be short day onions; Texas grows onions in the winter, so anything with “Texas” in the name, you have a good bet it will be short day. About half the Italian varieties will be short day, or if you buy from a California company you have 50/50 chance of getting short-day onions.

The ways you can grow onions can be overwhelming. Each of these have benefits and once you understand them, you will adapt to the other alliums with ever-increasing enthusiasm and certainty.

Seed – sow seed at the beginning of September – or even earlier if you have a cooler protected area. They will look like grass as they start. You can sow almost a half packet of onion seed in a six pack, like 15 plus seeds per cell. And they will suffer the indignity of being forgot with more aplomb than the majority of plants. Once most of the extreme hot weather is beyond us, say the second week in October (he says wistfully), set the baby plants out about five to eight inches apart.

Sets – Sets are onions plants that were started and grew to a small onion size. They are harvested and sold and the gardener will pop these little dried onions into the soil, then water and poof. They begin to grow again. They will take less time than onions from seeds. You sacrifice choices, though, as you will find only one variety of yellow, white and purple. They come in a bag with enough for three or more city gardeners to share. Unless you really eat a lot of onions. Sets are put in the ground with about ½ to ¾ of the bulb showing. The only reason to bury it deeper would be to prevent frost damage. If you get frost damage, bury it deeper.

Plants – just like the name, you are buying small plant. Usually sold by the pound with a five pound minimum, this is a great way to get one of the most wonderful of onions, the Italian Red Torpedo. This is an intermediate onion, elongated, and not too fat of a bulb. It is sweet enough to eat fresh from the garden, but grilled, these onions are amazingly sweet and worth the effort. Biggest drawbacks: poor storage life, they rot soon after being pulled, expensive ($5.99/pound, 5 pound minimum order) and they always sell out! Can also be started from seeds. Because of expense, the Italian Red Torpedo is the only onion I would consider growing from plants.

Shallots

Can be grown from seed – most of that seed, though is hybrid which I try to avoid. Shallots are easier to grow than onions and cost way more at the store. Save your time and your back: grow shallots and ditch onions!

They also can be grown from sets and that is the most common way to purchase shallots to grow. You can find shallot seed at superseeds.com and Johnny's Selected Seed, but shallot sets are all over the place. I haven't grow enough of them to consider myself an expert – yet. Planting of sets is described above.

Garlic “Before embarking on a gourmet garlic expedition, remember each variety yields experiences as unique as its name.” Laura Maher, garlic writer/expert

If you have not grown your own garlic and you do not hang out in gourmet circles, you might have been missing one of the greatest culinary delights in your life! Garlic you can buy to grow includes much more flavor that that stuff in the grocery.

There are two types: hardneck and softneck. There are further divisions and classifications, but lets just start here. Articles will tell you you cannot grow hardneck garlic here. That's not true. I did it before they told me and I've been doing for over twenty years. Hardneck: try Chesnok Red – mild; Spanish Roja – my favorite, a light bite (Slow Food USA's Ark of Taste variety) and Music – slightly hotter than Roja and the current fav of chefs every where! Softneck: Inchellium Red is memorable – by “memorable” I mean it will take you time to get that spicey out of your mouth! Also on the Slow Food USA's Ark of Taste.

Elephant garlic is a form of leek. It has a leek- like soft allium flavor, but nothing like the real garlics above.

Leeks

From seed or sets. Plant tiny plants at the bottom of a foot wide trench. You are trying to grow the leek so more of the bottom is white (blanched) so dig your trench down about six inches, plant the sets or baby plants at the bottom – as they grow, pull more and more of the soil back into the trench to keep most of the plants out of the sunlight – this will give you more blanched leek to eat! Pull as needed – you aren't going to dry these and save them in a cool, dark place.

Chives are a perennial onion grown for the green leaves which are chopped fine and used as a onion flavored addition to many dishes – in fact, can make an ordinary dish take on a little more polish with a pinch. Plant clumps of up to six chive bulbs 5 to 8 inches apart. Divide large clumps about every 3 years. Dig up the plants and divide them into small clumps with four to six bulbs each.  Harvest as needed leaving enough leaf for the plants to keep producing. Remove flowering stalks – flowers are edible too.

Perennial and bunching onions – There are many.

You will see “Walking Onions” - sometimes with “Egyptian” on the front. They are small onions, baby onions grow in the foliage, eventually becoming heavy enough to pull the foliage down low enough for the baby bulbs to hit the ground, where they grow roots and give the impression that the onions are “walking.” Use in place of shallots – a bit more oomph and not to everyone's taste.

Perennial onions divide at the base. One plant becomes five plants, five plants become 25 plants. Share them as well as eat them. They need that kind of attention. I grow walking onions as well as I'itoi onions, which rarely flower or set seed. They are propagated by division of the bulbs. When the greens dry down, the bulbs can be dug up and divided. Enjoy a few, but be sure to save a some for the next planting. The name I'itoi signifies the Elder Brother, who is the creator deity in Tohono O'odham legends.

Grow these plants. They do not take a lot of room, although do keep them somewhat separate as they will have to remain unwatered at the end of their season – that can be hard on other plants.

Aliums: Garlic

HARVEST/STORAGE

• Harvest time depends on when you plant, but the clue is to look for yellow tops. Harvest when the tops begin to yellow and fall over, before they are completely dry.
• In our climate, harvesting will probably be in late May or early June.
• Check the bulb size and wrapper quality; you don’t want the wrapper to disintegrate.
• Dig too early and the bulb will be immature.
• Discontinue watering.
• To harvest, carefully lift the bulbs with a garden fork. Gently pull the plants, carefully brush off the soil, and let them cure in an airy, shady spot for two weeks. Hang them upside down on a string in bunches no more than six bulbs. Make sure all sides get good air circulation.
• The bulbs are cured and ready to store when the wrappers are dry and papery and the roots are dry. The root top should be hard, and the cloves cracked easily apart.
• Once the garlic bulbs are dry, you can store them. Remove any dirt and trim off any roots or leaves. Keep the wrappers on—but remove the dirtiest wrappers.
• Garlic bulbs may be stored individually with the tops removed, or the dried tops may be braided (provided you planted softneck garlic) together to make a garlic braid to hang in the kitchen or storage room.
• Bulbs should be stored in a cool (40 degrees F), dark, dry place, and can be kept in the same way for several months. Don’t store in your basement if it’s moist!
• The flavor will increase as the bulbs are dried.
• If you plan on planting garlic again next season, save some of your largest, best-formed bulbs to plant again in the fall.

RECOMMENDED VARIETIES

There are three types of varieties of garlic: Softneck, Hardneck, and Greatneck (Elephant).

• Softneck varieties, like their name suggests, have necks that stay soft after harvest, and therefore are the types that you see braided. It is less winter-hardy than other types and cannot be grown where there are harsh winters. A good flavor, but shine as good keepers. Recommended varieties: ‘Inchelium Red', ‘Purple Italian’
• Hardneck varieties grow one ring of cloves around a stem, there are not layers of cloves as there is in softneck varieties. They are extremely cold hardy, but do not store as well or long as other varieties. Many hardnecks have strong flavors and are among chefs are some of the most sought after garlics in the market. Recommended varieties: 'Music', 'Spanish Roja.'
• Greatneck varieties are not recommended. They are more closely related to leeks than other varieties and their flavor is more like onion than traditional garlic. Bulbs and cloves are large, with about 4 cloves to a bulb. Big bulbs, but a flavor bust.