Here are some French red shallots (on the left ) and a few Dutch shallots (on the right) that I have left from summer. I grew both last year and harvested them in July. I replanted the largest bulbs of each variety this November and had these teenie French red shallots leftover. So instead of tossing them I decided to skin them,chop and freeze them for later use. The French say their shallots are the best in flavor. I read the French Gray shallots are the absolute best flavor of all shallots but I couldn’t get any this past fall-all the seed companies were sold out. I do know they did not make me cry while the Dutch ones do, almost like onions but not as strong.
Ugh! What a lot of work! I don’t know if planting the largest ones will produce larger ones than these. We will see. I know with garlic, you plant the largest cloves to get still larger cloves each year but am not sure with shallots. Here they are all skinned and chopped.
All that work for this-a mere 1/3 cup of chopped shallots. Let’s hope they will be bigger this year or I’ll stick with the Dutch shallots which are much bigger and easier to skin for my main shallots although I will try the gray shallots if I can get some. I do love growing shallots-they are so easy when planted in the fall and are delicious!
It;s the opposite with shallots. Small bulbs will yield few but large shallots. Large shallots will yield many small shallots. That’s why you should plant mixed sizes so you get mixed sizes. Some for eating and some for replanting
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