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Post by stevil on Nov 25, 2008 15:24:08 GMT -5
The Amish Onion is similar to the Egyptian onion (that I discovered recently comes from Iran), only it's different. In my garden at least the Amish onion grows better, the greens are a little narrower and the taste is different. In my opinion, the taste is better, but mostly it's just different. If you like to stuff the Egyptian onion greens with cheese or something similar, this won't work with the Amish onion, they are too small. As far as the difference in taste between Oerprei and Babbington's leek, this is like when people ask me what the difference in taste is between my garlics. Yes, joining the SSE was a real enlightenment, seeing in particular the diversity of topset onions that are around! I tried to get the Amish Spreading Onion (listed a couple of years ago anyway). Is this the same thing? It is described as "prolific light purple skinned topsets.........from SE Iowa farm 50 miles south of Amana colonies, 1994" Tell more about the origin of the Egyptian Onion in Iran... Stephen |
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Post by stevil on Nov 25, 2008 15:27:15 GMT -5
By the way, I have some small bulbs of a very good shallot strain :Klimt, comes from a Czech market, if anyone is interested (only small ones will be sent to the US), it's very productive and certainly longkeeping (up to June over here). ....would be interesting to try a couple, yes please....  |
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Post by canadamike on Nov 25, 2008 16:06:43 GMT -5
No, but some small cies I have great contacts with and will grow some of the stuff I have/recommend.
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Post by stevil on Nov 26, 2008 2:49:36 GMT -5
Stevil: I traded some garlic bulbils with Åke Truedsson this year, as well as got some tomatoes from him. I was under the impression he was more into tomatoes than alliums. I also traded garlic with a Swedish guy named Matti Turpeinen, who seemed to be where Åke got most of his garlic. He has a lot of interesting garlic from the former USSR. You asked about Åke T. Yes, I would say that he was "biggest" on tomatoes (he has his own Tomato club in Sweden), but Garlic is number two. He runs garlic courses in the summer from home, lectures around the country and writes. However, he's also interested in unusual fruit. He has developed his own hardy Kiwis, Fragarias, Hippophae+++. I visited him this summer just before he moved to a bigger place. Oh, he also had fruiting Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) - hadn't seen that before... Matti Turpeinen: haven't heard of him - his name is Finnish (sure he's a Swede?) |
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Post by PatrickW on Nov 26, 2008 8:42:52 GMT -5
Okay, lots of things have been going on here since my last post! First, Frank, I would love some Klimt as long as you have extra! If you are struggling to meet demand, I will be happy to wait until next year as I have a lot of new things in my garden this year anyway. Be sure to save some for yourself to eat. Andrey Baranovksi of Belarus sent me seeds for a old Polish shallot called Primalys that I'm going to try this year. He seemed quite enthusiastic about it. Has anyone else tried this one? I'm also growing the Utrecht Onion, another apparently Dutch potato onion/shallot, but I don't know anything about it and I don't have enough to share right now. Maybe next year I'll know more. As far as my Babington's Leek goes, Søren said it came from a Danish horticulturalist, so it's probably different from what's commonly sold in the UK. For the Amish Onion. Yes, it came from the SSE about 4-5 years ago. I don't remember it being called a 'spreading onion', but otherwise your description sounds right. I'm afraid I don't remember who it came from anymore, but I could look it up if you're interested. I should really reoffer it via the SSE, since no one else seems to be offering it anymore. As far as Egyptian onions coming from Iran, I've just seen a lot of mentions of that on the Internet lately, for example: heritageplants.co.uk/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=73&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=26&vmcchk=1&Itemid=26waddell.ci.manchester.ct.us/id_egypt-onion.htmlI don't know anymore about it that that. It could be it's just an Internet rumour. As far as Matti being a Swede, I don't know, but the garlic I sent him was to an address in Sweden. Matti found Lieven over the Internet, who suggested he contact me. He seems to at least be living in Sweden. |
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Post by stevil on Nov 27, 2008 5:54:38 GMT -5
Hi Patrick I like to know the history of things, so yes if you can check at some stage re-Amish I'd appreciate it, but absolutely no hurry.... Concerning Egyptian Onions, I'm not sure exactly what this is. It seems to me that in the UK most people think that this is one clone. In reality, it may be that there are several clones in circulation. At least that has been my experience here in Norway where I'm helping the Norwegian Genetic Resource Centre (they are responsible for the Svalbard Doomsday Vault) collecting old perennial onions from old gardens (onions with a history of at least 50-years). I have an article, in Norwegian unfortunately, on what we call here Luftløk (literally Air Onions) to advertise the project for the public: www.hagegal.info/innlegg/stephen/allium-portrett-nr-1.phpIn Figure 3, there are 4 "Air Onions", the two on the right come from Norwegian gardens and the two on the left are named US varieties from SSE. In the US (SSE) they are generically called Topset Onions (or, my favourite, walkabout onions) and Egyptian Onions seems to be one variety (although I think there's some confusion here). As I've understood it, these topset onions are mostly crosses between Allium fistulosum (hence their hardiness) and Allium cepa. www.cabi.org/pdf/books/9780851995106/9780851995106.pdfHere it suggests that they may have originated in NW China where both parent species' ranges overlap. However, probably more likely theory is that they have developed in different places at different times. So, Iran could well be one of them... In the reference above, these "topset" onions are divided into two groups - East Asian and Eurasian. The latter includes all the varieties we have in the west, whereas the former are known as Wakegi Onions, the difference being that the latter has the shallot as a parent rather than the common bulb onion. It would be great to get hold of that one, but I've never seen it offered. There's a third group Allium x cornutum (Triploid viviparous onions) where Allium cepa is one parent, but the other is not yet known for sure. It states that this is a more slender plant with pinkish-flushed flowers and it is found in Tibet, Croatia, Central and Western Europe, Canada and the Antilles (!!) - so this may well be amongst the varieties we have around us in this group.... I hope to persuade the Genetic Resource Centre to look into this once we have collected material from Norway - I am also collecting named varieties as a reference collection (hence my interest in Amish and others you guys - and gals - might have access to, hint! hint!). This seems to be the relevant paper (also concerning the identity of the French Grey Shallot). I haven't seen the whole article.. www.springerlink.com/content/t3520923j4311143/Stephen P.S. I've recently received seed of several Russian perennial onion cultivars from Andrey in Belarus, but not Shallots - too many old Norwegian varieties to grow (a collection was made here in the 1970s of land races and there's a national collection which we have access to) |
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Post by stevil on Nov 27, 2008 6:05:16 GMT -5
Oh, and we also call the Egyptian Onion, Pensjonistløk (Pensioner's onion) here - as one doesn't need to bend down to harvest it  |
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Post by PatrickW on Nov 29, 2008 6:56:30 GMT -5
Yes, Amish Spreading Onion, from the 1996 SSE Yearbook. Offered by IA ST D2.
I had the Catawissa onion until last year. I decided it was just too boring.
If anything you get from Andrey turns out interesting, I'd like to hear.
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