Why are shallots so expensive?

[LiberalAndProud]

1. Weird.

Dutch Valley Growers sells shallot bulbs in bulk. They must be growing them?

I did find this interesting tidbit though.

http://www.gracelinks.org/blog/3445/real-food-right-now-and-how-to-cook-it-shallots

But shallot cultivation is not without controversy. I said that shallots are “frequently” cultivated by planting bulbs from the previous season’s harvest. There are some varieties of shallot, ironically developed by those bulb-growing savants the Dutch, which can be planted by seed (a much cheaper way to grow shallots, because the planting can be fully mechanized). The controversy here is this: shallot aficionados, led by the French, believe that “true” shallots are those varieties that are only propagated by planting bulbs from the previous season. So-called “false” shallots are those Dutch types that are grown from seed. How do you know if you’re getting a “true” or “false” shallot? As this article explains, “true” (bulb-planted) shallots can be differentiated from “false” (seed-planted) shallots thusly:

“Firstly, a bulb-planted shallot will always have a faint circular scar at the root end where it was separated from the parent cluster. Also, when cut in half, a true shallot will always have two cloves or sets of concentric layered scales; a seed-grown shallot has a singular bulb, no secondary clove, and looks very much like a tiny onion globe.”

The reality is that most people can’t really differentiate between “true” and “false” shallots, taste wise (although I’m sure that there are many French folks who would disagree).

I also saw that most shallots are imported from France. Who knew?