It's that time of year. The shallot king is at it again!

DH loves growing shallots. This is how he does it:

At the beginning of March he starts telling me, 'They should be in by now!'

I source all the onion sets we require and send away for them. This year, of course, everything was a bit late but despite DH shaking his head as he watched me plant them they soon caught up and made some healthy clumps. That's because I do all the hand weeding. It's a never ending job on fen soil which, left to its own devices, would only produce nettles!

He then gives me regular updates on their progress (as if I walk past them with my eyes shut)

Last weekend we lifted them. That is....I was bent double easing them out with a fork while DH held the trug!

This morning he sorted them out on their drying station and separated them into 'pickling' and 'cooking' piles.

DH makes the most marvellous pickled onions. Everyone is given a jar and they're a must at Christmas with the turkey left overs.

He has already selected the bucket for brining them. I've dug out the jar of pickling salt from the back of the cupboard and ordered some extra cider vinegar so by the middle of the week he should be into full scale production.

I, in the meantime, will be finding all the empty jars in the garage, putting them through the dishwasher, searching for my roll of fancy labels and digging out my River Cottage recipe for spiced vinegar.

The one job I refuse to do is skin the onions after they've been brining so he plonks the bucket between his knees and does it while he's watching the telly.

He's really very proud of his delicious pickled onions.