This variety is planted in the fall, like garlic, harvested in July and will store on your kitchen counter for 12 months!!

NEW: Shallot F-1 hybrid seed is available from different seed catalogs. The debate is on!!! Are these new hybrids going to keep the proper propagation (aggregatum feature), or will STALK and go to seed? ... Stay tuned to find out.

This onion grows in bunches. When you harvest shallots the bunch will easily come apart and you will be find onion bulbs that are larger and some are smaller. The larger bulbs actually contain several seeds that could be divided.

I save the smaller bulbs to be planted with the skin, rather than dividing larger bulbs.

I prefer to save for seed the smaller bulbs on the left which is about the size of a quarter.

You can easily tell which side is up and down!

As I mentioned above, I prefer to save this size of bulbs for my kitchen. This bulb can be used for one large salad and 2 small tomato salads.

I've planted as late as mid November. But you must keep in mind that the bulb grows roots in the fall before the hard frost will kill the leaves.

This picture shows a bulb that I missed to harvest in July and has resprouted at the end of September.

I use the same tool to mark the spacing for garlic, onions and shallots.

Squirrels don't like shallots but still enjoy pulling the bulbs to play. This is a picture taken in early January after a warm spell that melted the snow. In the spring I'll remove the chicken wire to facilitate the weeding.

So far the temps were not low enough to kill the leaves.

The vegetation looked much worse in March when the snow has melted away. Here you can see a few sprouts that are just an inch long. Removing the chicken wire was an easy operation as the netting just rolled up.

I found a few bulbs that may have been pulled up by the chicken wire in the thaw - freeze of the winter. Chicken wire amplifies the sun rays and protects from squirrel digging ... but has the wire protected more bulbs than I've lost due to the pulling during thaws? NO, I lost almost all the 2007 fall-planted crop!

This picture shows how incredibly well this strain of shallots keeps (without refrigeration!).

The picture was taken in early August 2008 with a bulb freshly harvested on the right, and a stored bulb harvested in August 2007. The 2008 bulb was planted in the spring 2008.

This second picture was snapped in November as I was splitting bulbs to plant my winter crop (about half of my seed stock - in light of past losses, I now keep the majority of the seed for spring planting). Notice the darker color of the bulb on the right - that bulb was planted in 2007 and overwintered.

Because weather and seasons have become so unreliable and unpredictable, I have for several years planted half of my crop in the fall and half in the spring.

I recommend you do the same if you don't want to risk losing all your crop and seed. As the picture above documents ... you may even skip a whole growing season. I could have replanted a 2007 bulb in the fall of 2008 for harvest in 2009. Do you know of any other onion bulbs like this?

Great news about 2008 - 09 overwintering. All my 2008 seed is emerging. I have planted more seed in late March 09 ... but I keep the crop that has overwintered separate for comparison. I'm convinced that the Winter crop is superior to the spring planting.

In 2009 I have 4 different cultivars of shallots growing, and I'm looking forward to be able to offer comparisons. In addition to my French Winter Red, I have Sharon's from Colorado and two cultivars I've ordered from Fedco, Maine: Yellow Moon and Picasso. At planting time (Easter 2009) I've cut one each of French Winter Red, Yellow Moon and Picasso (seed bulbs of 2008 harvest) and compared for taste.

I found Yellow Moon to be very spicy, not recommended for raw eating, while French Winter Red is still my favorite for both taste and smooth flavor (raw) as a salad spice. Picasso is OK raw ... but I want to compare it cooked when I harvest in August.

Once you are satisfied with the quality of your plants and keep saving seeds for a few years, the time comes to start sharing seeds.

Become a member of Seed Savers Exchange. www.seedsavers.org/membership

By becoming a member ($40 per year membership fee) you can order seed from 700 plus sources. Unfortunately there are only 35 seed savers in Wisconsin and 33 in Illinois ... but none in Kenosha and Racine Counties.

We need to change that and have more local gardeners listed in Seed Savers Year Books to make seed available to other local gardeners.

This page lists all cultivars that I save - some are available to all (HAS), most are reserved to "listed" SSE members - click here to review the list of cultivars.

Please call Seed Savers, become a "non-listed" member (support this no-profit organization) and eventually join me in offering seed as a listed member. Call (563) 382-5990

If you'd like to participate with the Kenosha Potato Project - here are your options:

• If you live in Southeastern Wisconsin - please email me at seedsaver@curzio.com
• If you live somewhere else in the USA or Canada - are you a member of Seed Saver Exchange? We have a few gardener who participate with the Kenosha Potato Project within the Seed Saver Exchange.
• We have members of our Global Potato Network in Europe and are always please to cooperate with any gardener / farmer. Sending seed abroad is restricted or difficult ... but we may find ways to cooperate.