Glenn Andrews - Growing and Using Garlic

Glenn Andrews

Have you ever known anyone who honestly didnt like garlic?

I dont think I have. True, my husband said he couldnt stand garlic, so for the first year or two of our marriage I nobly didnt use any in my cooking. Then I began to notice that the food he seemed to especially enjoy at restaurants or friends houses contained garlic!

Thats when I started being sneaky. Garlic bread, for instance. I added lots of herbs as well as garlic and called it herb bread. He loved it. Eventually I started saying things like, You know that chicken last night you enjoyed so much? Well, guess what.... And he changed his tune to I dont like garlic if I can tell its in the food!

Do you see the moral here?When in doubt, be sneaky! Use small amounts of garlic unless you know for a fact that everyone who will be eating with you is a confirmed garlicaholic. But if you know that its going to be all right, dive right into such scrumptious dishes asChicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic (page 27).

Garlic

The first step in true garlic enjoyment is to acquire a source for fresher, tastier garlic. The answer is, of course, to grow your own. Ill show you how.

After that, Ill lead you through the great things you can do to preserve and present garlic. Ill cover roasting and smoking the stinking rose (as garlic is often known), making garlic vinegar, making garlic braids, and ta-da! making your own absolutely pure garlic salt.

And then off well go to lots and lots of spectacularly wonderful recipes using garlic. Follow me!

Who should be growing their own garlic?

Lets see: First, anyone who loves the taste will find that their own freshly harvested garlic is incomparably better than the finest they can buy.

Next, anyone who is anxious to get the many health benefits attributed to garlic will find that, again, fresher (and preferably organically grown, too) is better.

The last major group of those who should grow their own garlic is those who want great gardening results with the very smallest amount of effort. Children, for instance, or absolute beginners in the world of gardening.

True, garlic culture can be made complicated, but the simplest system sticking cloves of garlic into the earth and waiting works just fine. You wont get the almost-instant results you can from, say, planting radish seed, but theres almost no effort involved. And while your garlic heads wont look as perfect as those grown in the way Ill be telling you about, theyll taste better than any you can buy in a supermarket.

Garlic (Allium sativum) is a member of the same lily family as onions, leeks, and shallots. It is one of the oldest known foods its use has been traced back as far as 3000 b.c. Through all those years, it has been prescribed for virtually every known human complaint, from infertility to arthritis.

You grow garlic by planting individual garlic cloves. The plants grow to 1 to 2 feet tall, and, as the plants mature, the bulb divides into a cluster (or head) of cloves covered and held together by a thin, papery skin.

Its possible to get yourself a nice little head of garlic by just taking a clove of garlic you have sitting around in the kitchen and sticking it in the ground in fall. Come spring, the chances are good that your little clove will have become a whole head.

But it will be a small head, and theres no absolute certainty that this method will work. (It usually does, though.)

For a good crop of garlic, youll be amply rewarded if you do it right. This means using good soil, well prepared, plus planting in the right place, at the right depth, watering, weeding, and then harvesting at the right time. Seem like lots of work? Luckily, this really isnt hard.

Garlic needs full sun to develop properly, so choose a spot where the sunshine will hit it all day long. You can get away with partial sun for many other sun-loving plants, but garlic is not one of these. Well, youll still get garlic in a location that receives sun only, say, half the day, but it wont be as large as it would have been in total sun.

As is true with any root vegetable, success in growing garlic starts with excellent soil.

Superb soil is sometimes hard to come by, though. (I once asked an organic farmer if I could buy some of his soil. He gasped and said, Id rather sell you one of my children!) So youll probably have to settle for improving the soil you have. The addition of compost or humus and well-rotted manure will do the trick in most cases.

You want a soil that is rich in nutrients and of a consistency that will pass the snowball test. Pick up a handful of your soil. Pack it gently into a snowball shape. Now break it open, again gently. If the ball forms nicely and if it yields and crumbles when you carefully press on it, you have good soil consistency.

If, however, you cant easily form a ball from the soil, it contains too high a proportion of sand. The solution: Add some compost or humus.

If your snowball wont crumble easily, then you know that theres too much clay. The solution for this: Add compost or humus and sharp sand.

The pH of the soil is important, too. Most garden centers sell inexpensive pH-testing kits. What youre looking for is a pH of between 6.0 and 6.8. A lower reading than this means your soil is too acid. The application of a little lime will take care of that. (The chances of your soil being too alkaline are pretty remote.)

But hey, were talking about perfect soil here. Hardly anyone reaches perfection in their garlic-growing soil. You should do fine if you just come close! And remember that adding compost or humus will help, no matter what.

If you want to use a commercial fertilizer, look for a 10-10-10 mix. This means that the three main components of the fertilizer nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) each comprise 10 percent of the fertilizer. As far as commercial fertilizers are concerned, 10-10-10 is a good mix.

Lets assume that your soil is now close to the ideal composition. Whats left for you to do to it? Digging and loosening! If youve added compost, humus, sand, lime, or commercial fertilizer, youve probably worked the garden bed already. Now make sure the bed is well dug and the soil is loose to a depth of 1 foot. Picture yourself as a garlic clove that has been put into the ground. You want to become an entire head of garlic, but if the soil around you is compacted and stiff, youll waste energy trying to grow.

If some kindly soul has provided you with nice loose soil, however, you have (literally!) room to grow.

The usual advice given to would-be garlic growers is to plant in fall. However, the ideal planting time varies with your preference as well as where you live.

Northern gardeners will be well advised to plant in fall (for instance, in late September) before the first frost, then, after 3 or 4 days of watering, apply a mulch to help protect the garlic through the cold winters. Good mulches include shredded leaves or grasses (but not quack grass), peat moss, cocoa shells, and seaweed.

Many gardeners in such semitemperate growing zones as Ohio feel its best to plant their garlic in early spring March or, at the latest, April.