When are shallots ready?

The foliage will start to go brown and die off when they are ready - some ease them out of the ground at that point to speed up the process, but I just leave them until the foliage is quite shrivelled then lift, separate, ( !) and dry (then dry some more - in my experience any with thick necks or bulbs which are actually siamese twins are hard to dry out sufficiently to keep well and are best used first.)