Digging my shallots

Shallots are from the onion family and to me taste like a cross between mild garlic and onion. Their mild enough that they can be used raw, minced in salad dressings. I particularly like them, as they fill a gap in my cooking staples. I typically find 50-lb sacks of onions on sale in late August or early September. My shallots begin maturing in mid to late July. So, with the shallots, I can have something onion-y for that 5 to 6 week period in summer, when I am often all out of purchased onions.

I've been digging these 1 or 2 clumps at a time, to add to recipes. My shallots give me a 5 or 6 fold increase. For every 1 shallot I plant, I get 5 or 6 in return. I planted these in early spring this year. Previously, I had planted them in October, per the instructions I was originally given with my initial purchase of the shallot bulbs. But this past fall was a difficult one for me, and many things I might do in "normal" years was put off. So, I didn't plant these until early in March. And as it turns out, these shallots seemed to gain in size better than fall-planted ones. I'll give it a shot again next year, and see if my results are the same.

These shallots are descendants from my initial purchase 19 years ago. I bought 1 dozen shallot bulbs, planted them out, and saved a few more each year. This spring, I planted 36 shallots. I estimate I will dig a total of about 180 to 200 shallots from this planting. I will save about 40-45 from this year's harvest, and plant in early spring. I will lose a couple over winter, so 40-45 should give me roughly what I had this past year.

Oh, and I found that shallots keep well in a paper bag in the fridge, over winter. I was using up the last of the shallots from last summer, in late spring this year. I had forgotten that bag was in the fridge, and was happy to find it when I ran out of purchased onions.

I've only begun digging them. I could just dig them all at once, but I was just out in the garden, gathering some veggies for dinner and quickly dug an extra few bunches. I'll dig the remaining shallots over the course of the next week or two.

My garlic is also almost ready to dig. Garlic is so cheap in the store, that the only reason I plant it every year is that one year, I had several purchased cloves of garlic that sprouted over winter, so I planted them out. And lo and behold, they grew into garlic bulbs. I've continued on for about 16 years with descendants from those first few cloves of garlic. These do not size up as well as the garlic I find at the produce stand, but for something that's free, I'm happy to do it, and have slightly smaller heads of garlic. I haven't dug any this year, so who knows, maybe these will also have sized up better than usual.

Another decent deal with a coupon

This has been my week for coupons!

In my post yesterday, I said I'm willing to pay more for a necessity than a want. There is something that's been a "need" for several years, and I've posted about it a couple of times -- our bedsheets.

The Cal King fitted bed sheet has been patched and patched for the last 3 years. I finally gave up on patching it sometime this past year, as it became uncomfortable to sleep on. Instead, I began using the flat, flannel sheet for that bed as the bottom sheet, tucking it back in on all sides, every morning, instead of a fitted sheet. Then using the still-good flat percale sheet for the top sheet.

Imagine how fine and dandy it's been sleeping on flannel in this hot, summer weather!!! Ha ha!

A month ago, I scouted out some sheets at Bed, Bath and Beyond, knowing that some time in August they'd be sending out coupons, as a back-to-school promotion, for university students going off to live in the dorms.

I got my coupon for 20% off and raced on over to BB&B, hoping they'd still have the color choice I wanted in a Cal. King sheet set. And yay! they did. Instead of paying $59.99 for a set, I paid $47.99. It's still a lot of money, but a necessity that I was willing to spend more for.

I had been going back and forth between buying a new bed (that was smaller, going for a Queen instead of this Cal King) and just buying new sheets. For now, it's a lot less expensive to buy a new sheet set, than a new mattress and box spring. And as frugal spinster pointed out, back in the comments in one of my "sheet dilemma" posts, I can always use these larger sheets on a smaller bed, by taking in the corners on the fitted sheet, to adjust the size. So, I'm not really wasting money, if in 2 years time we do downsize this bed to a Queen. I expect these sheets will last for another 8 years or so, at which time, maybe I'll be ready to make that decision to downsize beds.

Anyway, just thought I'd update you on the big sheet dilemma (because I know, "Enquiring minds want to know").

And if you are needing something from Bed, Bath & Beyond, you can get a 20% off coupon, for signing up for email offers. The coupon is good on one item. Also, check the glossy folder that your grocery ads come bundled in. That's where I found my 20% off coupon, in a bundle delivered a week and a half ago.