Shallots!

What better way to begin this blog than with the shallot, perhaps an underrated vegetable. Shallots are tasty and versatile (great roasted or in stews), and beautiful to look at when freshly peeled, ranging from near white, through green and yellow to red-purple in colour.

At the allotment we spent Sunday lifting our shallots and preparing them for storage. Shallots grow in clumps and need to be separated after lifting. They are then prepared for drying by cutting off the leaves and the roots, and by then removing the outer layers to clean them. The outer layers can also be soggy so it is worth removing these damp layers to limit the chances of rot. The cleaned shallots can be laid out somewhere warm and dry, and where the air can circulate (we use the benches in our greenhouse), making sure that none are in contact with each other, again to limit the chances of rot spreading.



Uncleaned shallots

 A shallot before cleaning

Peeling a shallot

Removing the roots

The numbers of shallots lifted seem to be never ending and preparing and cleaning them is a repetative but theraputic job. When peeled they're beautiful tactile objects, each one different in size, shape and colour. All being well, the shallots should last us for a few months and I can't wait to start using them....



 Colours of prepared shallots

More colours - shallots laid out for drying

Meanwhile, the battle against bindweed continues, and a lot of fun was had harvesting strawberries and eating thern with cream....

A couple of perhaps useful shallot links follow to finish with:

From Wikipedia - about the shallot

From BBC Good Food - shallot recipes