Basket of garlic smells great..really!
I've been pulling some of the 400 heads of garlic I grow each year to make room for other things needing planting and this garlic smell great..er...at least to me.
The aroma of garlic right out of the garden is magical. My wife and I will use it in just about every dish we cook. There's a story in my latest book Tomatoes, Garlic Basil detailing a visit from my brother. He came over to enjoy some chicken dosed with tons of garlic. His wife called a couple days later complaining about the smell coming out of his pores and added he'd been sleeping on the couch for two days. I turned to my wife and said with a smile, "we really stink." And it's true, but I don't care, I love everything about garlic.
It's a little early for harvesting, usually I wait until the second week of July, but the greens were starting to turn brown and I had some stuff laying around that needed to go in, namely some big tomatoes (to beat the blight).
Just like anything out of the garden, fresh garlic is amazing. It's filled with a complex, wonderful flavor that can't be matched by store bought bulbs.
Garlic will start showing up in farmer's markets now; I bought huge garlic last year from Janoski's Farm and Greenhouse and saved some bulbs to plant in October. They turned out great. I'll detail how to plant garlic later in the season, but the heads can be bought now and saved until October.
That's one of the tricks of growing garlic, starting with the right kind. Much of the garlic in the stores is from California or China and won't winter over in our climate; I buy most of mine from Bobba-Mikes Garlic Farm in Ohio. It's top quality and reasonably priced. On my first visit there almost 15 years ago I walked into a giant barn filled with drying garlic. Some people might have covered their noses, but I inhaled deeply enjoying the pungent air.
Another treat garlic growers enjoy are the bulbets which are cut off to allow the bulbs to grow big. I always miss a few and they are wonderful bite sized treat in the garden. Just don't invade my personal space this time of the year, you'll probably be sorry.
