Much to my amazement in the D T Brown catalogue I received today they are
selling these French grey skinned shallots for planting this autumn. We have
grown them this year as a friend in SW France got some for us. We couldn't
find anything about growing them in the UK when we looked last year so in
case anyone is thinking of trying them ...
They say plant in the autumn as they do in France but I'm not sure about
their ability to survive our cold/wet winters so planted them in modules in
a cold greenhouse. They grew well over winter and had a good root system by
the time they were planted out on 8th March, all but a couple of the 40
grew. The strange thick grey skins came off like a hat, pushed off from the
bottom so some needed a bit of help to allow the leaves to grow straight.
They have grown very well despite the cool wet weather, the leaves are
taller than our Jermor shallots and lighter green and there looks to be a
good number of bulbs per plant. They look very healthy.
I'll let you know how they crop and taste later but they say they are a
stronger shallot flavour and much favoured by chefs.

-- Regards
Bob Hobden
Posting to this Newsgroup
from the W.of London. UK