Shallot harvest 

:)

It’s really odd - never had so many bolt, but never had such huge bulbs either! Not sure I can repeat it next year, but we shall see...

It has been a funny year - my overwintered onions (from sets) bolted but most of my spring sowing is ok. The red onions seem much more prone to bolting than the yellow. Did you grow the red onions from sets or seed? I gave up on sets because they were bolting so often. I have a couple of Italian varieties of red onion from seed - Rossa Lunga di Firenze and Tropea Rossa - none have bolted, even though one batch was in the ground really early in the year, so I am quite happy with those.

I grew from sets. Only salad onions I grew from seeds. Just popped in my polytunnel, tomatoed finally start to ripen! We have eaten loads of cucumber, both from greenhouse and outdoors. First time none of them is bitter!

If you can find a supply, the long or half-long varieties are great - so versatile in the kitchen.

This is a rather disputed point so it depends who you ask. Traditional shallots (such as those I harvested here) are only grown from bulbs and you cannot get seed for these types; some types never flower so never produce seed, whilst with others a small proportion may bolt, depending on weather conditions, but the seed may be sterile, which is why they are only reproduced by bulb. They are not really sets; a set is an onion bulb that is only partially developed and offers a convenient short cut albeit with potential disadvantages such as increased risk of bolting. One onion set produces one mature bulb. The shallot bulb is fully mature when planted and then divides into multiple offsets. It gets confusing because there are now quite a few that are called shallots but are grown from seed. Some (myself included, along with many of the traditional French growers!) would argue that these are not proper shallots and are best considered as a sort of onion - the Dutch breeders of various varieties might disagree 😂

If I have to buy onions I often get banana shallots - nice flavour and quick to prepare. How well do yours keep?

@@jonnyskitchengarden really well taste great if you get 2mins this guy got me on to them he talks about storage etc ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IU6xIuyOWzY.html

Yes, that would be a good way to do it.

They were Longue de Bretagne from Seeds of Italy