Last time we went to England, 14 years ago,, 'wow that long' any way in Harrods Food Halls I found some gorgeous looking shallots long ones, they said French shallots so I bought 4, well I had to smuggle them back to Canada. any way would you believe they didn't grow, not even a whisker of a root, I wouldn't have believed that Harrods would sell GM goods.
Any way about 3 weeks ago in one of our local supermarkets they had lovely French shallots for sale 3 pound bags of them,,, very nice size, so I bought a bag,, apart from use in the kitchen we could maybe grow a few next year if they are OK. Well I stuck one in an indoor flower pot that is growing a Meyer lemon, and the shallot is now sprouting root,,, I know cos' I looked. ;) So poo :P to Harrods and their shallots..... qahtan
14 years ago, there was no fresh GM produce on sale in the UK so whatever caused your shallots to fail, it wasn't that they were GM. More likely the amount of time they were out of the ground between harvesting and you re-planting them when you got home.
Same problem - different conclusion! Not GM, but sprayed with sprouting inhibitor, which does exactly as it says on the tin! Solution (too late for you obviously but somebody else might benefit) - wash them very carefully and peel off outer layers. When chicken leg shallots (cuisse de poulet) were new in the UK I managed to grow them to seed after a failed attempt, because somebody told me about sprouting inhibitors.
The other veg routinely treated with sprouting inhibiting chemicals is potatoes.
Treated to prevent sprouting? Or they were sown from seed - those onions people sometimes call banana shallots rather than real shallots?
Ooh galina you beat me to it!
Quote from: pigeonseed on November 10, 2011, 23:20:26
Treated to prevent sprouting? Or they were sown from seed - those onions people sometimes call banana shallots rather than real shallots?
Ooh galina you beat me to it!
Sorry ;D Yes aka banana shallots, but I have been informed they are better known as 'chicken leg shallots' across the pond.
I am still trying to get them to divide, but at most I get 3 split-offs and not particularly large ones either. They are better grown from seed like onions. But I still try to get them to be more like real shallots.
Quote from: qahtan on November 10, 2011, 21:25:27
Last time we went to England, 14 years ago,, 'wow that long' any way in Harrods Food Halls I found some gorgeous looking shallots long ones, they said French shallots so I bought 4, well I had to smuggle them back to Canada. any way would you believe they didn't grow, not even a whisker of a root, I wouldn't have believed that Harrods would sell GM goods.
Quietly does it about the "
smuggled (shhhhh) snuggled them back to Canada". :o
You never know who's listening!! ;) ;D
So you are just along the coast from where I lived
before coming to Canada. Angmering on Sea.
still miss the ocean though. after 45 years.
qahtan
The other veg routinely treated with sprouting inhibiting chemicals is potatoes.
This was a real pig this year... a keen young man took over a very overgrown half plot by mine... dug it over and put in five rows of potatoes and nothing came up... that's all I can think did it.. :-\
They seem to use it on Sweet Potatoes as well you have to scrub them very well indeed to get them to chit. What I cannot understand it how can they still be organic.
What I can't understand is why they have to do it in the first place. all this mucking about with our food, then they wonder why we are sick. grrrrrr
Qahtan
It all comes down to money...longer they store the better it is for shops.. ::)
If it's not mucked about with then it comes from China, why, haven't we got enough???..... qahtan
Quote from: qahtan on November 11, 2011, 00:20:27
So you are just along the coast from where I lived
before coming to Canada. Angmering on Sea.
still miss the ocean though. after 45 years.
qahtan
Oh I do love to be beside the sea-side.... especially when the summer's done. It's quieter then. ;)
yes you are right, with no tourist getting in the way. q
Quote from: goodlife on November 11, 2011, 22:05:13
It all comes down to money...longer they store the better it is for shops.. ::)
It's all about keeping the supermarkets happy, never mind the people who have to eat it.
They don't seem to use sprout inhibitor here in Belgium as my spuds always produce shoots before I get to the end of the bag. They also don't keep them dark enough so there's always a bit of green.
I gave up and switched to sweet potatoes which I can buy loose in small quantities or else salad potatoes which come in smaller packs.
Don't grow spuds as we don't eat enough of them.
Don't grow onions or shallotts any more as they make me cry so much so I use frozen chopped shallots in recipes and get Possum to peel red onions for me when I need them for roasting or tarte tatin.
I've almost given up on potatoes due to persistent blight and the fact that we don't eat many apart from baking potatoes. I can never get them big enough. Playing about with resistant strains is turning out to be fun though!
That's a shame Robert. I don't know why but I've never had blight on potatoes, though the tomatoes are a disaster.
Is it the area where you are - commercial potatoes nearby?
I'm sympathetic to companies who try and inhibit sprouting. We do throw an awful lot of food away, and people complain about that, quite rightly. And so you could see them as preventing food waste. And at the end of the day they're trying to make a living selling perishable goods, so I don't blame them trying to prevent spoilage.
Also we oughtn't assume things are bad, just because they're not natural. I know nothing one way or the other, I'm not arguing it's good for us, just that it might not be bad. ???
I'm on an allotment site, and the problem is that people won't cull their volunteer spuds, which are one of the main sources of blight. It's noticeable here as well; every year someone gets neurotic about diseased folaige, which isn't the problem, but they won't take volunteers seriously. It's been really bad since those two very wet summers, but after this year's drought, I haven't had any blight at all, and I'm hoping for a lot less next year.
Down here in the soft sunny south we quite often get blight but it hasn't stopped me growing plenty of potatoes for the last few years. We eat quite a lot.
This year I lifted two heavy cycle trailers full (about 400lbs). Many whoppers which are great for jacket spuds as well as everyday use and some great first earlies for salads.
At the first sign of blight (when we do get it) I chop off the tops and leave them in the ground. A couple of weeks later I dig them and bag them into sacks for storage in a cool garage.
Most years they last us and the family until well after Christmas often through to the beginning of March. Saves on the veg bill and we'd rather eat home-grown. :)
Quote from: galina on November 10, 2011, 23:30:08
Sorry ;D Yes aka banana shallots, but I have been informed they are better known as 'chicken leg shallots' across the pond.
I am still trying to get them to divide, but at most I get 3 split-offs and not particularly large ones either. They are better grown from seed like onions. But I still try to get them to be more like real shallots.
Well, I grow them every year??? and they always split for me. Maybe they just know when they are in French soil and make a patriotic effort :P I just planted a bag of supermarket ones as they were going cheap. Might not work, but for 50p I figured I might get a few shallots for almost free!
antipodes,
you wrote
Well, I grow them every year??? and they always split for me. Maybe they just know when they are in French soil and make a patriotic effort :P I just planted a bag of supermarket ones as they were going cheap. Might not work, but for 50p I figured I might get a few shallots for almost free!
eoq
How many split offs do you get? As I said, here no more than 3, which is a lot less than ordinary shallots, which have up to 12. How far apart do you space yours? Perhaps I need to space them further apart. It would be easier to grow them like shallots if I could and get more and bigger split offs. Can't replicate French soil if that's the magic ingredient ;D ;D ;D