both here, and in Aberdeenshire. Stonehead has been picking his onions, whilst I have been picking our shallots.

Our pickling recipe is different, and is taken from Mary Norwak’s excellent book, From the Garden To The Table. Published in 1977, it’s packed with simple preserving recipes and techniques. So here’s the shallot one:

4lb of small onions or shallots
3 pints vinegar
3 teaspoons of allspice
3 teaspoons of peppercorns

The allspice and peppercorns were stirred into the vinegar and brought to the boil this morning and left to go cold. Then tonight, I peeled the shallots which were dug on Thursday and have been drying in the polytunnel since. The peeled shallots were packed into 2 clean jars.

The cold pickle mixture was then poured over the shallots and the lids sealed tightly. There’s still some pickle left, so I will bring some more down from the tunnel (I have pickled the smallest ones so far) and do them tomorrow night.

Mary recommends waiting 3 months before eating. It’s beetroot next!

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