Harvest

 There may be a little bit of allium jealousy in this post. This stall was at the Monday market in Caussade.  One day i will be able to plat my garlic and arrange my variety of onions but for the moment being the first day of Autumn I have harvested this years bulbs.

Digging them up didn't take too long, as you see there was not that many. Last year I planted rows of onions yellow and red ones but they didn't really grow staying quiet small and bolting, the flowers did look very pretty though. So I thought I would cut my loses and not put so many in, a bag of red sets were placed in neat rows maybe not so far apart as they should of been. I put red in as these are more expensive in the shops and being red are healthier (I'm sure I read that somewhere or did I make it up?) with so much rain they seem to enjoy themselves in the ground and grew quiet well, well better than last year I only wish I had planted more, I guess no two years of veggie garden are the same.

That goes for the shallots too, one bag planted, around 12 because they had never really done much in the ground but this year I'm really impressed, must be something to do with all that rain. Again shallots are expensive here so most of the shallot required recipes get replaced with an onion but now I will be able to hunt out recipes with shallots.

 

 

 Once dried out for a couple of days and mud removed I had to take a few photos as next year's harvest may not be the same.

All the potatoes are dug up as well, apart from the ones I have left in the ground- unintentional but there always seems to be those odd ones that don't reveal themselves till next year however much I dig. And those pesky ones that jump in your forks prongs, why are they always the biggest ones?

It wasn't a huge treasure find, considering how much rain we had but then I guess they do come from a hot climate and as it's been a bit cooler here in South West France I won't blame them. It may have something to do with a few eaten ones I found, mice I think had cleverly eaten the insides leaving the shell of a potato, obviously they don't know that is where all the goodness is or ever eaten proper baked potatoes, they even done the same to some of the onions, nibbling the insides to leave a perfectly formed outside skin. At least there is only farmer J and me to feed now so we can eek them out. I divided them into small eat now, forked eat now, mouse tasted eat after the first two, ones that look like they may have a dodgy mark on them and lastly a descent amount of medium and large that went in a sac to be stored in the carve. With fewer potatoes healthy options of beans and pulses will be on the menu more.