Kalbas Farms

Technically it’s all three, but here in Central Texas most people just call them shallots. That’s what my great-grandfather Kalbas called them in the plattdeutsch of the little Texas community of Fedor in Lee County: Schalotten.  

Kalbas Farms is so excited this fall to have available a true Central Texas heirloom.  These shallots (scallions or green onions, if you prefer) were given to me by an old farmer who had them passed down to him from another old farmer (and that person had received them from so and so and they had received them from… you get the idea) .  Who knows how old this strain is… perhaps my great-grandparents grew them, as well!  However old they are, they look absolutely beautiful in the garden.

The bag I received was full of small bulbs about the size of a thumbnail.  I planted them in the middle of July. It was a little tricky keeping them alive in the Texas summer heat.  But once they took off, they TOOK off.   Each little bulb multiplied into bunches of green onions.  In fact, for this reason, they have two other nicknames:  Bunching onions and multiplying onions.

And multiply they have!  I have seen some gardens in these parts that have 4 or 5 square feet of garden space taken up with one giant clump.  However, mostly those giant clumps that are left in the ground from one year to the next only produce tiny plants that really only yield some green tops and not much actual onion. The best way to grow them (so I have been told) is to harvest the whole clump and save your best bulbs to plant the following season.  This method will not fail to give you large shallots with beautiful white onions at the bottom and healthy green tops.  So far, sooooo good in my garden!

You’ll love the old-fashioned taste of good ole’ shallots (or scallions, green onions, multiplying onions, bunching onions… and I’m sure there are a few other names out there I’m not aware of).

Joyfully,

Aaron