Garlic - garden plant of the week

December 30, 2:02 PMSeattle Garden & Kitchen ExaminerJerry & Kristy

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             Garlic - wonderful, amazing garlic!

Amazing, Versatile Garlic
I admit it, I love garlic and its endless possibilities it brings to the kitchen. It is a member of the alliums family and filled with good for you nutrients:  manganese, B vitamins, calcium, vitamin BC, iron and more.  And let’s not forget garlic also keeps away all those pesky vampires!

Preparation:
Garlic can be eaten raw or cooked. To use garlic, strip off some of the papery covering from the bulb and ease out the cloves you’ll be using. The flavor will change depending on how the cloves are prepared. The finer the garlic is chopped, the stronger the taste will be. For example, one finely minced clove will give out more flavor than 10 cooked whole cloves! If garlic is cooked whole, it gains a milder, nutty sweeter taste

Garlic flavor mellows as it cooks so either add it both at the beginning and toward the end of the recipe or only at the end to keep the garlic flavor strong.

Note: When sautéing garlic, watch it, making sure not to burn it as it will be very bitter.

Growing Tip:
Garlic is easy to grow with the Individual cloves acting as seeds.  There is an old saying that garlic should be planted on the shortest day of the year but most people either plant them at the same time as their onions or about six weeks before the soil freezes.

Right before planting, break your garlic bulbs apart into individual cloves. Choose large cloves which have “cracked” cleanly, keeping their “footprint” on the basal plate.  Eat the smaller cloves (they require as much growing area and produce smaller bulbs) and larger ones that didn’t crack cleanly.

Garlic likes plenty of sun and requires fairly even soil moisture during its early growth.  Stop watering the garlic during the last few weeks.  You can harvest your garlic when the plants are, 60% green and 40% brown.

Buying Tip:
When purchasing garlic, choose firm, plump heads with plenty of dry skin covering.  Avoid soft or shriveled cloves, ones that are sprouting or are stored in the refrigerated section.

Whole bulbs can be stored in an open container in a cool, dark place for up to 2 months; individual cloves will keep 5 -10 days.

Cooks normally braid soft neck varieties or store garlic in warm (above 65 °F) areas to keep it dormant.  It can also be stored (minced or whole), in oil which is then kept in the refrigerator

Our fresh produce recipes show it is as easy to eat well as it is to open a box!