Garlic Is Fun

Garlic is fun. Who would have guessed? Its fun because its curly. Yes, curly. Perhaps curly isn’t the first word that comes to mind when you think of garlic. I think that’s because the curliness is a well kept secret. So well kept that its rare when someone even guesses that my garlic is, well, garlic.

Garlic closeup

I never even harvested my garlic till this year. It came back so reliably that I didn’t want to take the chance of disturbing and losing it. Duh, city folk. This year I basically ripped it out because it was in the way of our new pond, and I tossed it haphazardly in a pot behind some ditch daylilies with just a little bit of soil. I then proceeded to ignore it.

I did see a teeny tiny garlic clove lying on top of the soil about a week ago when we finally ripped out the ditch daylilies. Wasn’t I surprised to find that the plant didn’t care about being ignored. It did what garlic does – it made more garlic. In order to prove its worth, fearful that I was going to let it die there, it even made really tasty garlic.

Yesterday I felt sorry for the plant, all withered and dehydrated. I decided to plant what was left of it. I reached into the pot and came up with handfuls of teeny tiny tasty garlic. That too must have been part of its survival tactic, especially after it saw the fate of the ditch daylilies. It subscribed to ‘produce or you’re out’ without me even telling it. I planted some of the bulbs and brought the rest inside for cooking. I’ve got lots more than what you see here.

Garlic cloves IMG_3687 (640x427)

I looked around the internet and found that there are some 600 types of garlic. Yowsa. I think mine must be one of the softneck kinds. Softnecks are so called because the whole green plant dies down to pliancy, which mine does. It leaves nothing but the bulb and flexible stems that would have been easy to braid for drying. I also learned that you plant garlic here in the Midwest in the fall. If you get garlic, expect it to be curly next spring, then the leaves will dry out and be ugly, and you’ll have tasty cloves in August.

2 comments to Garlic Is Fun

  • it’s not a softneck if it makes curly garlic scapes. they seem to be random curls so maybe its a porcelain hardneck variety. enjoy eating and don’t wait till it all dies back before your harvest to ensure good storage. annie

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