How to grow your own garlic — and why it matters

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“Stop and smell the garlic! That’s all you have to do.” — William Shatner

The word is out about homegrown garlic. And the word is flavor.

Go ahead and ask: Doesn’t all garlic taste like … well, garlic?  Not even. Think about buying garlic at the supermarket; what’s the selection like? You’re given just one type of basic garlic bulb from a grocery store basket to bring home to finish your special sauce. Imagine if you could only buy one type of pepper or apple for the rest of your life … no jalapeno, no honeycrisp. Are you kidding?

The range of garlic flavors is broad and varies whether you’re eating it raw, roasted or baked. Wine can be described as dry, oaky, fruity, etc. Garlic flavors are wide-ranging too. Add your own to the list: subtle, mellow, earthy, rich, strong, mild, spicy, sweet, lasting, explosive, nutty, hot, full, and fiery hot.

The only way you’ll have a better selection of garlic, which means a broader range of flavor characteristics, is to plant and grow your own. Fall is the best time to plant garlic for early-summer harvest (more on that below). It likes a long growing season to establish deep roots and form large, healthy bulbs.

The earliest record of garlic used by humans dates back nearly 6,000 years. It was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun along with lapis lazuli artifacts and gold. Garlic was an important part of many early cultures. They figured out how well garlic served their diet in taste, food preservation and even commerce.

Need-to-know garlic basics

Plant and grow your own garlic in the fall for the largest, best tasting homegrown ever. (Betty Cahill, Special to The Denver Post)
Plant and grow your own garlic in the fall for the largest, best tasting homegrown ever. (Betty Cahill, Special to The Denver Post)

Garlic (Allium sativnum) is in the allium genus, same as onions, so they will need some curing time after harvest to form the papery outer shell. There are two subgroups of garlic: hardneck (bolting) and softneck (nonbolting) varieties. There are cultivar types to choose from under each variety. This sounds confusing, but once you read about the growing and flavor characteristics of the cultivars sold on the market today, you’ll know which ones you wish to grow.

Plant some of both. Hardnecks will send up an impressive flower stock (called a scape) next spring. Grocery stores often sell garlic scapes this time of summer; they are a culinary hit used in pestos, sauces or cooked like asparagus.

Hardneck garlic has outstanding flavor, and is highly recommended for making salad dressings and pressed fresh over vegetables. It is also delicious when baked or eaten raw for health benefits. Hardneck bulbs can grow to a large size yet have fewer cloves (four to 12) per bulb. They are very easy to peel, which is much appreciated by gourmets. Hardnecks have a much shorter shelf life than softnecks, ranging from three to six months or so after harvest and curing.

Softnecks do not grow a flower scape, which makes them easier to handle for braiding and growing for commerce. They produce several cloves per bulb (up to 20 in some cases) and are tightly wrapped, which gives them a longer storage period than hardnecks, up to nine or 10 months or more under the best storage conditions.

Softnecks are the type you find in grocery stores. They can be mild in taste or have quite a strong bite. Just as hardnecks, there is a range of flavors with softneck garlic.

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