In his weekly Jamie’s Little Allotment column, Jamie Marsh discusses harvest time…
Obviously, the best thing about having an allotment is when it comes to harvesting what you’ve grown, and this weekend just gone didn’t disappoint.
Last October, I planted my onion sets in large cell trays and kept them under cover until I planted them out into the beds in December; by this time, they had formed some lovely roots, enabling them to take up water and nutrients.
I kept the bed weeded because one thing onions hate is to compete with weeds, and also well watered as it’s a bit of a myth that onions don’t need much water.
I’ve noticed over the last couple of weeks that the onion leaves have started to brown and wilt, so I knew they were nearly ready.
Onions are ready to harvest when the once-tall green leaves are now brown and flopped right over onto the soil, and this happened last week, so I pulled them yesterday.
I took a small hand fork and gently prised them from the ground to reveal some amazing bulbs.
It’s just the best feeling to get a successful crop of anything.
Once I pulled all the onions and shallots, I rubbed off any excess soil from the roots and laid them on the ground in the sun to dry out for a few days and form a skin which will protect them in storage.
Once they are dried, you can string them together or put them into a net bag and hang them up in a cool, dark place like a shed, where they should store happily until you need to use them.
Another harvest, which just happened to take place this weekend as well and is also the same family as the onions (allium), was my garlic.
Garlic will show similar signs to onions that they are ready. When the leaves are browning, it’s time to harvest. Don’t leave garlic in the ground and wait for the leaves to flop like I did with the onions, as they might over-mature and split.
The same as the onions, use a fork to help ease the garlic out; the roots hold really firm, so if you try to just pull them out, you might leave the bulb behind.
Drying and curing of garlic is slightly different to onions. Don’t worry about cleaning the soil from the bulbs at this point. Garlic doesn’t need to stay in the sun; it needs to be laid on a rack or hung up somewhere with lots of air flow around them for a few weeks.
Once they are dry and the recognisable papery outer layers have formed, it’s time to brush off any soil and trim the roots, just leaving a very short stubble.
Again, like onions, garlic needs to be stored in a cool, airy place. Why not plant your home-grown garlic like the French do, then just snap a bulb off whenever needed?
There are lots of different varieties of garlic, which I’ve probably grown four or five of this year, but there’s one you won’t find in any supermarket.
Elephant garlic is what I’m talking about, and it’s called elephant garlic for an obvious reason: it’s huge, the cloves are easily five or six times bigger than an average clove of garlic.
Elephant garlic is a close relative to leeks and has a lot more subtle garlic taste than standard garlic. Still great for using in lots of dishes, but also a fantastic talking point.
Obviously, now you’ve harvested your onions and garlic, more growing space has become free.
Give it a good weeding, then top it up with some peat-free compost to put some of the nutrients back in that the previous tenants have exhausted, and you’re ready to get something else in.
In June, we can pretty much sow anything in the allotment. So why not try something different? Endive, chicory or fennel will do great.
Email me at [email protected] to ask me any questions or just to let me know what you’re up to in the garden
