I'm not even sure I can replicate the sweet spot again! It was very unscientific, but with educated guesswork.
When I dug the bulbs, I shook off all the dirt. you may recall I had bulbs from clay based soil and bulbs from a compost/sand mix. The ones in heavier clay based soil could have soil clumps still sticking, and those were gently removed. Usually, they released themselves from the bulb as single clods, but as long as the bulk of it came off (say, 80%?), I didn't worry about it. Roots were left intact. Bulbs were dug in the fall, well after tree leaves had fallen and weeks after the first hard freeze.
Bulbs were not laid out to dry, but stored dry in the garage, in these ugly red nursery pots I had that had drain holes that extended a quarter-inch up the sides. Details can be found in
this post, but they were eventually put into a styrofoam box. This box is thicker (and stronger) than the kind used for summer picnics. These are the kind I use for making planting troughs, and come from hospitals where they use them to transport vaccines, medicines and living organs.
And uh-oh......
When I just went to get the pics of the box above (still in the garage), there was a "surprise" in it. I still had some leftover bulbs, now 11 months stored. Most had rotted, some to mush. Ummm..... didn't smell very appetizing. (Insert your appropriate emoticon here.)
WARNING! Clicking on this thumbnail may induce vomitting.... and from here on, the rest of this post is not for the squeamish. Kinda appropriate for the coming Halloween season next month.
Amazingly, there were still a few happy bulbs! Now, I know what's on all of your minds: did I sample them? (Remember, I am the one who tastes soil.) I can feel the suspense (and anguish, disgust and/or disbelief) building in your minds.
And yes, I did!!!
After some very diligent cleaning, I bit into a raw, still crisp scale. It was...... OK. The sweetness was gone, but there was nothing bitter. In fact there was no flavor at all. The silky texture I have previously described was much stronger: now I would categorize it as soapy (but not soapy tasting).
And there you have it. I didn't do any cooking, etc. Gotta draw the line somewhere.
