Garlic

Growing

  • Homegrown garlic is easy to grow and delicious.
  • I regret that I didn’t plant garlic last fall and will be sure to put them in this year.
  • I needed many dozens of cloves last week for pickle making and had to purchase them.
  • Garlic, a member of the onion family, differs from onions in form as well as taste.
  • Instead of one large bulb, garlic produces a dozen or so small ones called cloves, surrounded by a thin, papery skin.
  • The way to get good garlic bulbs is to grow lots of leaves before bulb development.
  • The more foliage developed, the better the resulting bulb, in both size and quality.
  • Leaf development happens during the short, cool days of early spring.
  • Long days and higher temperatures favor bulb development and, once the bulb starts to form, no more foliage is produced.
  • Obviously then, it is important to plant very early in the year to establish a large vegetative plant.
  • Smart Northwest gardeners, who would rather work in the garden in October than in February, plant in the fall.
  • This is not absolutely necessary, but it does guarantee that the plant will get an early start developing foliage, after the bulb overwinters in the ground.
  • Planted between mid-October and mid-November, garlic is completely winter-hardy here.
  • The foliage may get frosted off during a hard winter, but it always takes off again in spring.
  • Garlic grows best on crumbly, light soils that are high in organic matter, with a pH range of 6-7.
  • Heavy clay soil creates misshapen bulbs and makes harvesting difficult.
  • Add organic matter to the soil on a yearly basis to keep it friable.
  • It does well with high amounts of fertilizer. Add three pounds of 10-10-10 (or an organic equivalent) per 100 square feet of growing area or follow soil test recommendations for your particular garden soil.
  • Garlic must be kept evenly moist, as dry soil will cause irregular-shaped bulbs.
  • It doesn’t have a very extensive root system, so summer watering is essential.
  • Mulch garlic to preserve soil moisture.
  • Garden centers often have garlic available in the fall, but bulbs from the supermarket will work fine too.
  • Select only larger, outer cloves to plant. Be sure they are smooth, fresh and free of disease. Do not divide the bulb into cloves until you are ready to plant, as early separation may decrease yields.

Bulb Starting

  1. Start Date: August for spring crop
  2. Seed Cluster: 1
  3. Sow Depth: 1/2 to 1 inch deep.
  4. Seed Circumference: ????
  5. Length of Germination: ?????
  6. Germination Temperature: ????
  7. Thinning: ??????

Bulb Starting

  • Place the cloves 5 inches apart in any direction in an upright position.
  • Cover the top of the clove to a depth of 1/2 to 1 inch.
  • Garlic grows best in beds.
  • This avoids soil compaction around the developing bulb caused by walking between rows.
  • As hot weather approaches, garlic plants may begin to flower.
  • Remove flowers as they appear.
  • When the tops begin to dry, usually in July or August, watering should be reduced.
  • Harvest garlic when tops die back by digging bulbs rather than pulling them.
  • Clean the bulbs and allow them to dry.
  • After drying, tops and roots can be removed with shears to within an inch of the bulbs, or the tops can be braided together after bulbs are completely dried.
  • Mature bulbs are best stored at cool temperatures (40-50F) in a dry place.
  • If they are too cool, they will sprout and, if too moist, they will grow roots.

Green Garlic

  • vivid green
  • curling garlic scapes
  • pencil thin and exuberantly loopy
  • emanate a clean and mildly garlicky scent
  • at the top of each is a tightly closed but bluging bud
  • curlicue tulip stems
  • like extra long green beans
  • cut them into two inch lengths
  • gently spicy undertone
  • an exquisitely fresh green, mellow taste
  • needs no vehicle to carry carry an intense flavour to the mouth - the scapes are self sufficient
  • its is simultaneously a vegetable and aromatic
  • just trim the roots and tops
  • peel the outermost layer of the bulb
  • alliums
  • the flower shoors of the blub
  • farmers cut them off to encourage the blubs to grow plumper
  • when the garlic is harvested before individual cloves are formed it is called green garlic
  • recently people realized that scapes were tender and delicious
  • grill them whole to show off their curves
  • twisted garden snakes
  • leek like stems still attached
  • quickly sauteed

baby garlic

  • the tender crop of garlic that appears in spring, blubs still attached to their green floppy tops
  • an addictive juicyness and musky sweetness
  • the field next to the house was a sea of green spikes.
  • I have been dreaming of fresh garlic since.
  • Its gentle flavour makes an elegant spring soup.
  • Though I had eaten garlic scapes for years, I didn't score my first bunch of green garlic until last year at Riverdale Farmers' Market.
  • The season is short - just a few weeks at the end of May and beginning of June.
  • It was love at first bite.
  • I fried up cubes of good white bread in olive oil and added the translucent green and white rounds.
  • I added white wine vegetable stock and simmered the soup for a few minutes before slipping a couple of farm-fresh (and totally illegal) eggs into the soup to poach.
  • Finished off with some shavings of 36-month-old Parmigiano-Reggiano and a little black pepper, the soup brimmed with all the possibility of spring.
  • I've been dreaming about green garlic ever since it disappeared from the markets last year,
  • so when I stumbled across it at Culinarium last week, I had to buy a bunch.
  • Most farmers' markets will have it this week as well.
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