We’re on the look out for any old shallots that are out there. Over the years we’ve had a few in the catalogue and would love to hear from you if you still have any of our old lines going. We're also looking for red and white potato onions so let us know if you have any.

The garlic and onion family have always been an important part of our diets because of their nutritional and medicinal value, as well as their taste flavor characteristics. They are particularly powerful anti cancer vegetables.

Our ancestors had a far wider range of choices than we’ve been used to with only the chemically grown Pukekohe Long Keepers and the horrible Chinese garlic in the shops available commercially for many years. Learning to live with these old cultivars has been a delight to me and it’s surprising how long it takes to fully integrate them into one’s life again. Different ones work for different people.

Seed Saving Information

In a home garden situation most members of the Amaryllidaceae family are very easy to save for seed because we collect the bulbs, (garlic, potato onions, tree onions, shallots) store them and replant in autumn /winter or early spring.  Others we just keep on dividing up, welsh bunching onions, multiplying leeks, multiplying spring onions).

The only species we are likely to be collecting seed of are the leeks (ampeloprasum) or the seeding types of onions (cepa). As they cross within species this means we can only grow one variety from each species, and if you’re planning on keeping your lines of seed strong for the long haul then you’ll need to grow a minimum of 50 plants to seed of both the cepa and the ampeloprasum species. I would suggest you plant several hundred onions, mark the 50 most true to type for seed saving and eat the rest.  It works best to harvest all the onions in summer, choose the best 50 for seed and plant them again in early spring to go to seed.

Flies and bees are the primary pollinators, not the wind. Isolation distances can be up to 5 kms (Seed to Seed) depending on geography. My feeling is that 5kms applies when one is planting acres of seed and you’re on the Canterbury Plains with no hills or valleys! I find that far smaller distances work where you have populations of only fifty and you have small valley systems and loads of hills and trees. We’d love to hear of your experiences.

Cultivation Tips

Garlic and onions do best in light, well drained, but heavily composted soil. Garlic is a gross feeder while it is growing tops, before the bulbs start forming. Stop fertilising once the bulbs start forming, but do not let them dry out until the tops begin to dry off. Bulbs will rot if watered past this point. Top setting garlic should not be watered once the flower stems are obvious, as this will stress the plant causing it to form tight layers of protective skin.