freeze-dried shallots

In article <[email hidden]>, Katra

Quoted message said:

Even my tomato vines met an early demise from blight due to the overly
wet weather last year, and I usually have grand tomatoes! I am trying
them inside the greenhouse this year where they will be protected from
too much rain. :-)

Weird. It doesn't rain here in the summer. The average rainfall for July
is .01 inch.

--
Dan Abel
Sonoma State University
AIS
[email hidden]

In article <[email hidden]>,

(Phred) said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
Katra <[email hidden]> wrote:
[snip]

Quoted message said:

Even my tomato vines met an early demise from blight due to the overly
wet weather last year, and I usually have grand tomatoes! I am trying
them inside the greenhouse this year where they will be protected from
too much rain. :-)

Murphy will ensure there is not enough rain this year; and plants in
greenhouses will go grey! ;-)

Cheers, Phred.

Well, rain has already been very rich just this past month!

Greenhouse plants get hand watered...

I have three tomatoe vines in greenhouse #3 that have done well all
winter. I planted them in there last November when they were itty bitty.
They have very lush foliage and are blooming now but have not set yet. I
need to hand-fertilize the flowers at the right stage.

When the weather is more reliably warm, I'll leave the door flap open to
allow pollinating insects in there.

The aloe in that same house is also throwing bloom stalks! Cool.....
We've never had aloe bloom before!

--
K.

Sprout the Mung Bean to reply...

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tend to get caught between the ears causing truth decay- so be sure
to use mental floss twice a day. -- Swami Beyondanada

Quoted message said:

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In article <[email hidden]>, Katra

Quoted message said:

I have three tomatoe vines in greenhouse #3 that have done well all
winter. I planted them in there last November when they were itty bitty.
They have very lush foliage and are blooming now but have not set yet. I
need to hand-fertilize the flowers at the right stage.

Good luck. If your plants don't set fruit, there is a spray that will
help. I'm not sure that hand-pollination is enough.

We have really nice weather where I live. In the summer, it gets warm
during the day, and then the breeze off the ocean comes in mid-afternoon
and cools things off.

When we bought our house 30 years ago, I was really looking forward to a
garden, and especially tomatoes. I put in the garden and planted like two
Early Girl tomatoes and four Big Girls. I wanted to get tomatoes early,
but I was really looking forward to the big ones. Well, I never got
them. The plants grew but didn't set fruit until summer was almost over.
It was well into the fall before there were any ripe tomatoes from the Big
Girl plants. They were barely bigger than the Early Girls and they looked
terrible. The skin was all blemished. The Early Girls were beautiful and
produced lots of tomatoes over a long period. They were a little small
but usable for anything.

Some time later we went to the county fair, where they were handing out
booklets on how to grow stuff in our county. For tomatoes, they advised
that you couldn't grow them here (I think they meant commercially) because
it was too cool at night to set fruit reliably, except for the far north
part of the county.

So, this is nice weather for people, but not tomatoes. So we pretty much
stick to Early Girls now (and cherry tomatoes).

--
Dan Abel
Sonoma State University
AIS
[email hidden]

Katra said:

Would it be possible to find some for sale on line locally?
Japanese websites? :-)

I can buy some in Osaka at a Thai grocery store that is quite out of the
way. They store them in the refrigerator, though, and that troubles me. It
was my understanding that shallots, onions, and such should not be stored in
the fridge. But I did buy them once. They got mouldy very quickly and
given their price, I couldn't justify buying them again. So freeze-dried it
will be! There's no harm in trying, anyway!

rona
--
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In article <[email hidden]>,

Rona Y. said:

Katra said:

Would it be possible to find some for sale on line locally?
Japanese websites? :-)

I can buy some in Osaka at a Thai grocery store that is quite out of the
way. They store them in the refrigerator, though, and that troubles me. It
was my understanding that shallots, onions, and such should not be stored in
the fridge. But I did buy them once. They got mouldy very quickly and
given their price, I couldn't justify buying them again. So freeze-dried it
will be! There's no harm in trying, anyway!

rona

Cool. Let us know how it turns out!

I get my shallots fresh from a bin at the oriental market, and I DO
refrigerate them. Onions too. It drastically extends the shelf life!

--
K.

Sprout the Mung Bean to reply...

As we go through life thinking heavy thoughts, thought particles
tend to get caught between the ears causing truth decay- so be sure
to use mental floss twice a day. -- Swami Beyondanada

Quoted message said:

,,<Cat's Haven Hobby Farm>,,<Katraatcenturyteldotnet>,,<

http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&include=0&userid=katra

Katra said:

I get my shallots fresh from a bin at the oriental market, and I DO
refrigerate them. Onions too.

Actually those are not "fresh", they're *dry*.
Fresh means just picked with tops still green... dry shallot/onion from
the market have been out of the ground for months, tastes nothing like
fresh. Btw, neither should be refrigerated, they should be stored like
garlic, in a cool (not cold), dark, well ventilated place.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Sheldon said:

Katra said:

I get my shallots fresh from a bin at the oriental market, and I DO
refrigerate them. Onions too.

Actually those are not "fresh", they're *dry*.

Ok Mr. picky! <lol>

Quoted message said:

Fresh means just picked with tops still green... dry shallot/onion from
the market have been out of the ground for months, tastes nothing like
fresh. Btw, neither should be refrigerated, they should be stored like
garlic, in a cool (not cold), dark, well ventilated place.

Can't. It's too humid here.

Every time I try just storing onions, garlic or shallots in a wood bin,
even with paper lining, they get moldy within about a week. Tried
storing them in the dark in a cardboard box too. Same result.

Refrigeration keeps them good for up to 6 weeks if they last that long
which is rare. I use a wicker basket in the big 40 cubic ft. Hobart and
put paper towels on the bottom of that.

I've never had them damaged/frozen as they are up in front near the
glass doors.

What is supposed to be wrong with refrigeration as long as they don't
get frozen??? Does not seem to change or hurt them any!

--
K.

Sprout the Mung Bean to reply...

As we go through life thinking heavy thoughts, thought particles
tend to get caught between the ears causing truth decay- so be sure
to use mental floss twice a day. -- Swami Beyondanada

Quoted message said:

,,<Cat's Haven Hobby Farm>,,<Katraatcenturyteldotnet>,,<

http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&include=0&userid=katra

In article <[email hidden]>, Katra

Quoted message said:

What is supposed to be wrong with refrigeration as long as they don't
get frozen??? Does not seem to change or hurt them any!

Makes your fridge smell?

:-)

--
Dan Abel
Sonoma State University
AIS
[email hidden]

Katra said:

What is supposed to be wrong with refrigeration as long as they don't
get frozen??? Does not seem to change or hurt them any!

It is my understanding that refrigeration does alter the flavour--it lessens
it substantially. But that may be just for onions that have already been
sliced.

rona

--
***For e-mail, replace .com with .ca Sorry for the inconvenience!***

"[America] is filled with people who decided not to live in Europe. We
had people who really wanted to live in Europe, but didn't have the
energy to go back. We call them Canadians." ---Grover Norquist in
Newsweek, November 22, 2004