Edible Bulbs | California

It’s that time of year when the fear of frost is over and planting summer-blooming bulbs is a great idea. Like most plants, bulbs appreciate well-drained soil rich in organic matter. So mix compost into your bulbs' planting holes to ensure good blooming. Check out our tasty selection of edible bulbs and our colorful selection of summer blooming bulbs. Please note that not all varieties are available at all locations.

Just Arrived! - Edible Bulbs! Choose from onions, garlic, potatoes, shallots and rhubarb. It's a great time to get these tasty bulbs in the ground or in container gardens. Plant on their own or with pansies and violas as a cover crop until your bulbs start peaking out. Please note, not all varieties are available at all locations.

Lets Start with Potatoes

Varieties:

Yukon Gold
Cherry Potatoes
Harvest Blend
German Butterball
Banana Potatoes
Red, White and Purple Potatoes

Not all varieties available at all locations

Planting Potatoes
Cut the potatoes into chunks, with at least two "eyes" (buds) per piece. Dig a planting trench 6 inches deep, fill the trench with 3 inches of compost, and place the seed potatoes in the trench cut side down, 6 to 8 inches apart. And finally, shovel 3 more inches of compost on top for form a hill.

Increase Your Yield
The hills you form on your potatoes will ultimately increase your yield. Potatoes will form along the underground stem of the plant, and when you hill them, they will effectively lengthen the underground portion of the stem. You can either add additional soil to the bed and then mold it around the plants, or you can scoop up soil from the rows and press it against the stems. Later in the season, it's easy to reach in and check the potatoes for size before you harvest them.

Harvest Time!
No need to wait until the end of the gardening season to harvest potatoes. If your potato plants are large and the plants are flowering, you may be able to harvest "new" potatoes. New potatoes are thin skinned and sweet. You can check the hills and feel around for potatoes, then either harvest them up individually or uproot the entire plant. You can use new potatoes right away, or store them.

Nothing More Powerful Than An Onion

All of the onion varieties below, vary slightly in flavor, texture, and color, but can usually be substituted for one another. In terms of cooking, they will all behave the same in the pan.

Varieties:

Red Onions - With their deep purple outer skin and reddish flesh, these are really the odd-guys out in the onion family. They are fairly similar to yellow onions in flavor, though their layers are slightly less tender and meaty. Red onions are most often used in salads, salsas, and other raw preparations for their color and relatively mild flavor. The lovely red color becomes washed out during cooking. If you find their flavor too astringent for eating raw, try soaking them in water before serving.
Yellow Onions - Considered the all-purpose onion, and personally, it's the one used most often. Yellow onions have a nice balance of astringency and sweet in their flavor, becoming sweeter the longer they cook. They are usually fist-sized with fairly a fairly tough outer skin and meaty layers.
Sweet Onions - These onions lack the sharp, astringent taste of other onions and really do taste sweet. They are fantastic thinly sliced and served in salads or on top of sandwiches. They can range in color from white to yellow and often have a flattened or squashed appearance. Sweet onions tend to be more perishable and should be stored in the refrigerator.

Not all varieties available at all locations

Ahhh Garlic!

Purple Garlic - a gardeners favorite, richly flavored light-to medium pungency garlic that has a lot of color and grows almost anywhere. It retains its sweet aroma even after cooking. And when properly grown and stored will keep through the winter.

Not all varieties available at all locations

Shall We Plant Shallots

Where would be without shallots? They're often seen in French cuisine, where they're featured in classic sauces such as mignonette. They're also indispensable to Asian dishes—often crisp-fried or ground into curry pastes.

Milder in flavor than red onions, but more assertive than yellow, with a hint of garlic flavor. Uses: Thinly sliced and fried for topping Thai curried noodles, congee, or deviled eggs; minced into basic vinaigrettes for added crunch and flavor. You'll need shallots to make the Ultimate Thanksgiving Green Bean Casserole, and we love them roasted under a whole chicken.

Varieties:

Red Shallots
Yellow Shallots
- Not all varieties available at all locations

And... Rhubarb

Canada Red Rhubarb - (Rheum rhabarbarum), also known as Chipman’s Canada red rhubarb, is a super sweet variety, which does not need as much sugar to sweeten while cooking as other varieties. The red plump stalks reach 2 to 3 feet tall producing 4 to 12 pounds of stalks per crown. Do not pick the rhubarb stalks the first summer. Wait for the roots to become established before harvesting. The stalks maybe picked throughout the fall. Do not eat rhubarb leaves; they are poisonous when ingested.

Summer Blooming Bulbs

Just Arrived! - Flower Bulbs! Choose from Dahlias, Freesia, Gladiolus, Lilies and more! These beauties will return year after year with impressive color. Plant on their own or with primroses as a cover crop until your bulbs start peaking out. Please note, not all varieties are available at all locations.