Garlic Capers: The Genuine Gusto of Garlic?

 Garlic update

 

Remember these? 

Garlic scapes are tall this year.  Amazingly, some of  ours grew over 6' high-- and the florets and  bulbils  are quickly developing.  See these?  They grew from a variety of garlic that offers larger bulbs than normal.   Yours may be different in appearance;  in our seed catalogs earlier this spring there were over **20 varieties of garlic offered .

Immature Garlic florets with bulbils

It won't be long before we get to plant the  'little bulbs'  or bulbils. It is no longer necessary to buy garlic 'seed'. 

 Note the bulbils  must be allowed to fully ripen for the best growth performance when planted .

 After the skin on the florets begins to dry,  splits,  and the bulbils begin to ripen, it is time to collect them. Cut the scapes long, let them air-dry them carefully for a few days or a week.  When dry, you can cut off the florets, separate the bulbils and plant them.

 
These bulbils  in this photo will be the  'seed'  or starters for a whole new generation and crop of  top-quality,  organically grown  garlic.  
 The largest of the bulbils --like the beauties below-will be dried , separated  and planted a couple or three weeks before the ground freezes hard. 
These bulbils are almost a half inch in diameter.

Planting them this fall will result in  some rounded garlic bulbs, (displaying no clove sections) next fall  which can be planted again, -- or garlic bulbs with clove sections --which can be divided.  Naturally, only the largest cloves will be replanted.

Two or three weeks after fall planting, if you happen to dig one of these bulbils up you'll see that a substantial root system has already  developed,  --which  give the garlic plant a great head start for growth in the spring. The root system goes dormant when the ground freezes hard.
 Ideally, for your area,  remember to plant garlic with just enough time to allow development of  roots without  surface growth before the ground freezes solid.    Why?
Top growth would simply die back when the ground freezes--setting the plants back and using up valuable energy from the bulb. 
Smaller floret bulbils  can be planted too, -- or simply  peeled and frozen for cooking  like any garlic clove.
While planting garlic bulbils,  don't forget that it's also the right time  to ripen and divide mature garlic bulbs you have harvested. Always be selective and  plant the largest cloves for a wonderful crop again next fall !

**Don't be surprised if there's another update on Garlic. Why?  We learn new stuff every day. So it goes with garlic, too!
At the Nolalu Market, a small, dedicated collection of growers and vendors sells  fresh organic produce, baking  and crafts every Friday evening.  Recently  I was fortunate enough to meet a new vendor that grows many varieties of garlic.  He has a list of   40 or more !! 
 I only have TWO types  under cultivation --- so far, that is!  

 Am I  missing out on the  potential genuine gusto of garlic  or what?  We'll certainly be remedying that situation!   The challenge is on!  How many varieties do we need?  As many as possible!

  More to come on that one for sure...more information, more varieties, and more gusto!  

Is that Incoming I hear ?

Garlic Galore !

           " Think this is enough garlic? "

 Garlic's up!  Yeah, I know, I had a picture of  this garlic posted on Saturday, but it's just too good not to talk about.

Garlic's up.  Organized too!  Now 12" high

 
It's even taller now, and wow, it is growing fast. This larger species of  garlic will grow about 4' tall. Maybe higher!

I  didn't want anyone to think this little bed was ALL the garlic we had planted last September before the ground froze solid. This small bed is mulched with old hay and lawn clippings. 




The following picture is  the OTHER garlic bed.  It has tiny, medium and mature garlic plants growing happily almost in a row.  Well, okay, it's not really a row,  more like a collection of plants growing every which way in a raised bed and quite happily, too, I insist.  There are a few freestyle opportunists sprouting .  A bit disorganized,  dropped or missed bulbils or seed, I concede. So what?  It's garlic.

 This garlic was planted in mid-September about an inch deep or so,  and covered and mulched heavily with peat moss.  About two weeks later a couple of  volunteer test cloves were dug up for inspection. No top growth was visible, but the roots on the cloves were already a couple of inches long.  The ground froze solid a couple weeks later and they spent all winter under about 2 feet of snow. No matter, apparently  they continue to grow more roots anyway. Storing up energy for spring.  Good thing. With our weird weather, we never know!

 

Now THAT is Garlic--Big and Small

 
  Some might assume the fall planting  method is a bit of a stretch, a gardener's imagination at work. Perhaps it's just satisfaction at seeing a great, long raised bed of garlic springing up early in May,  thick as lawn grass on steroids.






Think this is enough garlic? There's at least a half dozen blades of grass in the bed too.  Any good gardener knows 'ya gotta have at least a half dozen weeds, or it wouldn't be gardening!

How to grow Garlic, or  'big and small, we like it all ' 
  
If you want to start small and inexpensive, but grow a lot of garlic,  take a longer term viewpoint. 

• Get a garlic bulb. One will do for a small start, but get three or four, and divide the bulbs into cloves--or just pick up some garlic cloves from your closest garden center. Eat the small ones, and whether you intend to plant in the early spring or late fall, -- plant only the big ones.
• Watch them grow.
•  Let the stalks   (called 'scapes')  curl and grow full height, and when ripe, pick off  the florets which  consist of dozens of seeds called bulbils, and allow them to dry.  
• The seeds , or bulbils  (they look like tiny bulbs) are your key to garlic galore. Let them dry; you'll have handfuls of them. Save them.  
• Harvest the full sized garlic bulbs,  braid, hang and dry the big bulbs.  If you eat any, save the biggest cloves for planting again in the fall.   Why big and small?  Garlic grows bigger if big cloves are planted.  Best genetics and all, we must assume.
• In the fall, a couple of weeks after the first frost-- plant  those big cloves you saved 
• Plant the tiny garlic bulbils from the 'florets' while you're at it.  You can sprinkle  those in a wide, shallow trench and cover them with an inch of soil. Sprinkle mulch on top to keep the moisture in.  

• The following season, you'll be harvesting mature garlic bulbs from the big cloves, and  small round bulbs from the gazillion  'seeds', --some may have even formed bulbs of tiny 'cloves'. 
•  In the fall, you'll plant those small bulbs in nice straight rows, not like mine!  Plant them about 3 to 6 inches apart, they're only little anyway.  They will produce bigger bulbs.
• Of course you'll also have big, mature garlic growing from the big cloves you planted!   Harvest, dry and divide the bulbs.  Again, always save the biggest cloves for planting.  Eat the rest, roast a few with butter, and scare off  vampires and old lovers.
• Repeat the process every year, planting 'seed-bulbils', small bulbs, and the largest cloves.
• Mature garlic bulbs and big cloves are now plentiful,-- and you have three generations of garlic.  

Now you can  make 3 generations of Caesar salad, and don't forget, once you get 3 generations of excellent garlic, you won't have to buy more seed unless you want more varieties. There are about 20 or so to choose from.  You'll want to expand your garlic beds or give away a lot of garlic seed to your gardening neighbours instead!

If you like eating salad greenery, don't forget to pick the scapes (the center stalk that produces the florets) after the scape curls and the bud forms, but before it opens. Scapes are wonderful sauteed or raw in salads.
You'll have a bushel of them in no time too.  You will also have garlic galore.

 Does garlic, allium sativum of  the Liliaceae family, have exotic medical uses, or scare away slugs and bugs and vampires? History suggests it does. Garlic, although the bane of fresh breath, acts a natural antiseptic, helps you get healthy, and lowers blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
 Admittedly  it does give the garlic-lover  'garlic breath' .  Now what?  Chew a sprig of parsley.
 You have garlic galore. 
  I say, share it... , and enjoy garlic together.

Is that incoming I hear?