Garlic

A couple of years ago, I got the idea to plant a couple of cloves of store garlic in my herb spiral. It didn't do well. I planted it in the Spring and it's supposed to be planted in the Fall. I forgot about it until Spring 2008 when garlic started to come up. This time, it formed a couple of really nice heads. Sweet. Last year, I forgot to plant them again so I thought I'd sneak some into a raised bed in February and they wouldn't notice. Ha! They did get bigger and produce something so it wasn't a bust and it did make a pretty little braid, didn't it?

So...I decided to get serious. I didn't realize that there were so many varieties of garlic. Very much like tomatoes. There is some very good information on this site: http://filareefarm.com/. Basically, there are two main types, hardneck and softneck and then many varieties within those. According to my research, softneck garlic keeps well (supermarket garlic) and can be braided but doesn't have a lot of flavor (who knew?) Hardneck garlic can't be braided, doesn't store well but has fabulous flavor. It also grows well in a cold climate.

After researching, I decided to order from here:

http://www.wegrowgarlic.com/catalog/ They are a family business and are in the midwest (Wisconsin). I wanted to order garlic from someone who's climate was similar to mine. Also important to me was that they sell their product by the head not by the pound. I like garlic but I only have so much room and I'd like to try some different varieties.

Here's what I got:

Bavarian (rocambole-hardneck) It's supposed to have a sweet flavor that intesifies when it's cooked.

Belarus (marbled purple stripe-hardneck) It's supposed to be a mild and a good keeper for a hardneck.

Chesnok Red (standard purple stripe-hardneck) It's supposed to have "won "best baking garlic" taste tests conducted by Rodale, Sunset Magazine, Martha Stewart and others" according to their site. It also is supposed to have good keeping qualities.

Simonetti (artichoke softneck variety) It's supposed to form a large bulb and good flavor. I wanted to plant one softneck variety because it's supposed to be easier to grow and store better.

We should be pretty smelly about this time next year!