Garden Reflections - Alliums

Chive blossoms 

Most of my allium crops suffered this year during our unusually long drought. I plan on making a watering schedule next year (and sticking to it) to make sure that I get the best growth from them next season

Garlic

My garlic was the one allium crop that had no issues with water. Likely because it was harvested at the beginning of the drought 

The harvest began with garlic scapes. I made a big batch of pesto and we enjoyed several meals worth of grilled scapes

Most of the hardneck garlic was very large. About half was used up making canned pasta sauce. We are still enjoying the rest in various dishes, our favorite being roasted and spread on toasted baguette

The softneck was decent sized as well. After harvesting it was dried, braided and stored in the pantry. It keeps longer than hardneck garlic so we haven't even started using it yet. All the garlic (including scapes) weighed in at over 20 1/2 pounds

Leeks 

Leeks from 2015

I planted two rows of American Flag leeks this year. I wish that I could say that they were as gorgeous as the leeks from 2015 were but sadly they weren't

Lack of water and overshadowing from beans and nasturtiums stressed them into bolting

It wasn't a total loss though as I was able to harvest nearly half a pound of leek scapes to make three half cup jars pesto.
I'll give the leeks more room to grow next year

Onions 

2017 onions

I grew three varieties of bulbing onions this year. Once again water was an issue and about a third of the crop went to seed

There were still a decent amount of onions that I was able to dry and string for long term storage. I cut the flower stalks off of the bolting onions as soon as I noticed them and kept them in the ground until they were needed. I harvested over 35 1/2 pounds of onions

Shallots 

I grew red shallots this year. They were small but there were a ton of them. The 28 sets that I planted produced over five pounds of shallots. Next year I'm going to try growing shallots from seed

Total allium harvest was over 62 pounds