Growing Shallots

Shallots are grown across 370 acres of light, sandy soils in eastern England namely; Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Bedfordshire. The shallot growing year starts at the end of the February in the UK, as soon as the soil starts to warm up and the shallots are harvested throughout July and August.

Because shallots are a specialist crop, they require a great deal of care from sowing the seeds or plants to harvesting the bulbs and storing them.

We have to make sure that the number of shallot plants in a field is just right - too many and the shallots will be too small, too few and the shallots will be too big. It is also important that the plants are allowed to grow without too much interference so that they produce the best possible results – good for the environment and for you.

Our shallots get plenty of hours of daylight during the summer which means our farmers can grow high quality varieties. These produce firm brown or red skinned round or oval shaped bulbs. As well as tasting great these varieties also store very well and this allows us to ensure a year round supply of high quality British shallots.

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Harvesting

Before harvesting can begin, the leaves of the crop must fall over naturally and, as a rule of thumb, 40% of the leaf area must also have turned yellow. The crop is then ‘topped’, which means the leaves are mechanically removed. Two hours later the shallots are lifted out of the ground and left in broad rows in the field, a process known as windrowing.

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Curing

The shallots are then left in the field to dry. This takes anything from 6 to 48 hours, depending on the weather. The crop is then lifted from the field into trailers and taken to temperature controlled stores for further drying. After four weeks the drying process is complete. The shallots are now ready to be inspected to make sure they meet our strict standards.

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Around the World

Shallots are cultivated in Holland, Denmark, France, the United States, SE Asia and China. There are many different varieties of shallot grown around the world and these vary in colour, shape, size and flavour. This is decided by the number of day light hours in each country.

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Asia, Europe and Beyond

The shallots cultivated in Asia tend to be small, irregularly shaped and have red skins. Danish and Dutch shallots are often yellow-skinned. In France there is considerable regional variation resulting in a wide range of different shaped shallots from round to long and thin.

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"True Shallot"

The French grey shallot or griselle, which is considered by some to be the "true shallot", is Allium oschaninii, a species that grows wild from Central to Southwest Asia.

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South East Asia

We’ve got a long way to go to catch up with South East Asia, where shallots are used extremely widely. 120,000 acres of shallots are grown there!

Echalions

Echalions (also known as banana shallots) have golden skins which can be peeled back to reveal a juicy, white flesh that brings the oomph of an onion with the sweet, subtle flavour of the shallot. 

Popular with chefs, they add a subtle hint of flavour. Braise with meats, use as a base for soups, or nestle among roasting vegetables. Echalions are versatile alliums.  

You can find British-grown echalions on supermarket shelves from September to mid-June. 

They are grown in the Eastern counties of Britain (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk) where the sandy soil and warmer temperatures provide the ideal growing conditions. 

Top tips for buying, storing and using echalions.
  • Choose echalions with a good firm bulb, with clean-looking skins
  • Store in a cool dry place
  • To peel, simply score the skin and simply strip it off lengthways
  • Cut the lengthways and fry the pieces in hot oil to give beautiful crispy ‘leaves’ for decorating a dish
  • Use instead of onions in casseroles to provide added texture
echalions
Shallots are a rich source of vitamins A, B and E.
Shallots have high
levels of vitamin C, especially when eaten raw, for example in salads.
Shallots are a good
source of potassium, which is important for maintaining stable blood pressure.
Shallots contain allicin which is thought to help lower blood cholesterol levels, promote good heart health and stimulate the immune
system.
Shallots had the
highest antioxidant content of all onion varieties tested in a 2012 study by The US Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Shallots contain the flavonoid compound quercetin, which
research suggests could help reduce the risk of some cancers and heart disease.