G is for Garlic

I've never been much for growing vegetables. Yes, I like to eat vegetables but they just aren't as much fun as flowers. So vegetables are left to my husband. Mostly, we grow tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, lettuce (tremendous results for Romaine one year). We've also grown strawberries, radishes, peas and peppers (usually with terrible results).

At some point I became aware that you could grow garlic. I never even knew that there were different types of garlic -- I thought garlic was like bananas. Pretty much always the same thing. How wrong I was! The first year I did plant garlic from my local grocery store in mid-October. It grew, I harvested it in July and we ate it. Nothing spectacular.

But the next year I bought garlic from Big Elk Garlic Farm. Hard neck Chesnok Red. This was not your grocery store garlic! First of all, the bulbs were almost as big as my fist. Using grocery store garlic I need five cloves in my pesto, with Chesnok Red I need two. Second, the taste. You will weep! Third, the extra special bonus of scapes which are these weird curly stems that grow in the early summer. You cut them off and chop them up, using them like garlic when you're waiting for your garlic to ripen.

And it's so easy! You divide up a bulb or two, planting the cloves in October (here in zone 6), water it every now and then, cut scapes in late May/early June and then dig up bulbs mid-July. Then you hang it in your garage to dry, occasionally sending someone out to bring another bulb in throughout the winter. Just remember to save a few bulbs to plant in the fall. You'll never have to buy that sad, tiny cellophane box garlic again.

Try it!