Fall planting in raised bed

I am looking toward some items to plant that start in Fall and either (in early Fall) might be harvested during frost season, or, more to my thinking, plantings that will overwinter in my Indiana Zone 5b (but with climate change, who knows what zones mean).

So far, I’m thinking of planting some heirloom garlic and some French shallots. (I like to plant things that I cannot easily purchase in good quality affordably.)

Will welcome any ideas!

I have been planting as much garlic as I can make room for ever since we bought our house a couple of years ago. The garlic itself is much tastier than what I can buy in the supermarket, but my favorite part is getting scapes. The only places I’ve seen them available retail are at the occasional farm stand, and even then they are incredibly seasonal. Thus far a variety called Music has done best in my garden, and the scapes are quite large, which is a plus!

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How and when do you harvest scapes? And do you know your food zone?

Related: I like beet greens more than I like beets, but grocers often toss them, as consumers do. I found one grocer that will sometimes cut off a big bunch of greens and give them for free, because the grocer is so used to cutting off wilting greens after some time and tossing them out. (Storage tip: once beets with greens are bought, cut off the greens immediately and store apart, as the greens and the beets kind of sap off each other.)

I am in zone 7a. I plant garlic around Thanksgiving and I usually end up harvesting scapes in mid-June, then the garlic itself around July 4. Scapes are actually flower stalk and seed pod of the garlic - they shoot out of the greens and start curling around themselves at the top. You just cut them off where they emerge from the leaves. I usually do this once the top has created one full curl, so that they are fully grown but not too woody at the base. Delicious stir fried or blitzed into pesto.

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