I love shallots, they have such a great flavour. I have always been rather disappointed though with their size. I have good crops, but lots of small bulbs. These small bulbs are tasty, but oh so fiddly to peel and chop for cooking.
I have tried enriching the soil before planting, and I have fed them with various fertilizers. Still I get small bulbs, lots of them, but small.
I was chatting to a very knowledgeble nurseryman earlier this year, I told him about only growing small shallots. He suprised me by asking if I thinned my young shallots. No, I have never thought to thin them. Well, he told me, thats what you need to do. When they are growing strongly, and have split into individual bulbs about May or June, try thinning the bulb clumps to about 3 bulbs per clump. This I have now done in the 3rd week of June. I didnt do it earlier, as this year the growth has been slow due to the cold wet weather.
I found the best way to thin out the clumps it to get hold of the individual shallot bulb, between thumb and forefinger, low down near the base, then twist gently till it comes away from the group. I have thinned them to leave 3 shallots growing in each clump.
The thinnings are great used as green onions in stirfries or chopped and used in place of onions in any dish.
I have planted two varieties this year, My favorites ‘Red Sun’ and ‘Golden Gourmet’ They both did well last year. The Red Sun in growing really well, but Golden Gourmet dispite being planted at the same time, is way behind.
I have also grown shallots from seed before, and I will try again next year. If grown fom seed, you only get one shallot bulb per seed sown, but they were a reasonable size.
So I shall be looking forward to harvesting some nice large tasty shallots later this year.
