Everything about food, from matching food and wine to recipes, techniques and trends.

Heirloom garlic

Moderators: Jenise, Robin Garr, David M. Bueker

no avatar
User

Larry Greenly

Rank

Resident Chile Head

Posts

6577

Joined

Sun Mar 26, 2006 11:37 am

Location

Albuquerque, NM

Heirloom garlic

by Larry Greenly » Sun Sep 17, 2006 11:52 pm

I discovered some Inchelium Red garlic at a farmer's mkt here in Albuquerque, so I bought a couple of heads to plant. According to my research, it won a Rodale taste contest in 1990. And I noticed that many websites are already sold out. Some other stats:

Inchelium Red Garlic

Hailing from the Colville Indian Reservation in Inchelium, Washington, this garlic is a large and beautiful artichoke variety. The dense bulb, can have anywhere from 9-20 cloves and an outer bulb wrapper that is thick for the purpose of protecting the bulb. The flavor of the Inchelium Red is softly robust but not so strong as to be overwhelming; the flavor often sharpens in storage.

What are your garlic faves?
no avatar
User

Carl K

Rank

Wine geek

Posts

75

Joined

Fri Mar 24, 2006 10:12 am

Location

Charleston, SC

Re: Heirloom garlic

by Carl K » Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:25 am

I'm afraid the only garlic I've seen here in Charleston is plain old garlic and, of course, Elephant Garlic (which I understand is not really garlic at all).
no avatar
User

Robin Garr

Rank

Forum Janitor

Posts

21609

Joined

Fri Feb 17, 2006 1:44 pm

Location

Louisville, KY

Re: Heirloom garlic

by Robin Garr » Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:29 am

Larry Greenly wrote:What are your garlic faves?


We love garlic and go through a lot of it, but I have to be honest and admit that I'm a total innocent when it comes to specific varieties. There's a local farm called Blue Moon that grows a very fine clove, but I've always attributed that to local production and freshness rather than varietal character or terroir!
no avatar
User

Larry Greenly

Rank

Resident Chile Head

Posts

6577

Joined

Sun Mar 26, 2006 11:37 am

Location

Albuquerque, NM

Re: Heirloom garlic

by Larry Greenly » Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:40 am

Just like wines, different varieties of garlic have different characteristics. One characteristic of Inchelium Red is that it was expensive: $1.70 for two heads. But I figure by this time next year, I should have a good quantity of it in my garden.
no avatar
User

Niki (Dayton OH)

Rank

Wine geek

Posts

83

Joined

Mon Mar 27, 2006 11:13 am

Location

Dayton OH

Re: Heirloom garlic

by Niki (Dayton OH) » Tue Sep 19, 2006 8:03 pm

We also love garlic and go through lots; we've found that the hard-necked varieties at farmers markets in the area are particularly tasty. Unfortunately, most of the time we buy different kinds of garlic, we're either buying from a self-service stand (where you put your money in a lock box on the honor system--yes, they still have them around here!) or from a young helper who doesn't know exactly what kind of garlic it is.

Larry - how do I plant garlic? Wait until it sprouts? Can I plant it now and harvest in spring?
Cheers,

Niki
no avatar
User

Bob Henrick

Rank

Kamado Kommander

Posts

3919

Joined

Thu Mar 23, 2006 7:35 pm

Location

Lexington, Ky.

Re: Heirloom garlic

by Bob Henrick » Tue Sep 19, 2006 8:45 pm

Larry, I love your avatar! Bill Spencer needs to check it out too.
Last edited by Bob Henrick on Wed Sep 20, 2006 12:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Bob Henrick
no avatar
User

Larry Greenly

Rank

Resident Chile Head

Posts

6577

Joined

Sun Mar 26, 2006 11:37 am

Location

Albuquerque, NM

Re: Heirloom garlic

by Larry Greenly » Tue Sep 19, 2006 11:58 pm

Bob Henrick wrote:Larry, I love your avatar! Bill Spencer neeed to check it out too.


Thanks. Since I think of him every day anyway, I figure I might as well honor him in an avatar. It was a year ago today.

It took me forever to get it to work, though. I finally made it a .gif and lowered the number of colors to 256, which was the secret to my success.
no avatar
User

Larry Greenly

Rank

Resident Chile Head

Posts

6577

Joined

Sun Mar 26, 2006 11:37 am

Location

Albuquerque, NM

Re: Heirloom garlic

by Larry Greenly » Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:18 am

Niki (Dayton OH) wrote:Larry - how do I plant garlic? Wait until it sprouts? Can I plant it now and harvest in spring?


I'd stick it in the ground now. Separate the head into cloves and plant root side down. Then just leave it alone until next year. Easy. I do the same thing with shallots. Buy a few, plant them, and you'll never have to buy shallots again.
no avatar
User

Mark Willstatter

Rank

Ultra geek

Posts

447

Joined

Mon Jun 26, 2006 1:20 pm

Location

Puget Sound

Re: Heirloom garlic

by Mark Willstatter » Wed Sep 20, 2006 6:42 pm

If you really want to get into growing garlic, I highly recommend the folks at Filaree Farm, their website is http://www.filareefarm.com/. They've been my source for seed garlic for a long time - amazing variety. A good general reference on garlic - growing, the different types, some recipes - is The Great Garlic Book by Chester Aaron. As Larry says, it's not that complicated, although there are some subtleties to optimizing shelf life after harvest.
no avatar
User

RichardAtkinson

Rank

Wine guru

Posts

696

Joined

Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:15 pm

Location

Houston, TX

Re: Heirloom garlic

by RichardAtkinson » Thu Sep 21, 2006 2:32 pm

Robin,

If you are interested in trying some different garlic species, check out this url. We occasionally order from this place.

http://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/

Richard
no avatar
User

Niki (Dayton OH)

Rank

Wine geek

Posts

83

Joined

Mon Mar 27, 2006 11:13 am

Location

Dayton OH

Re: Heirloom garlic

by Niki (Dayton OH) » Thu Sep 21, 2006 7:12 pm

Thanks, Larry. And condolences again on Shadow the wonder mutt. Are you thinking about getting another best friend?
Cheers,

Niki
no avatar
User

Niki (Dayton OH)

Rank

Wine geek

Posts

83

Joined

Mon Mar 27, 2006 11:13 am

Location

Dayton OH

Re: Heirloom garlic

by Niki (Dayton OH) » Thu Sep 21, 2006 7:13 pm

Thanks, Mark. Sounds like interesting reading--I'll look for it!
Cheers,

Niki
no avatar
User

Larry Greenly

Rank

Resident Chile Head

Posts

6577

Joined

Sun Mar 26, 2006 11:37 am

Location

Albuquerque, NM

Re: Heirloom garlic

by Larry Greenly » Mon Oct 16, 2006 10:08 pm

RichardAtkinson wrote:Robin,

If you are interested in trying some different garlic species, check out this url. We occasionally order from this place.

http://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/

Richard


I took the plunge today and ordered a pound of asst garlics to share with a fellow gardener. Neat website.
no avatar
User

Niki (Dayton OH)

Rank

Wine geek

Posts

83

Joined

Mon Mar 27, 2006 11:13 am

Location

Dayton OH

Re: Heirloom garlic

by Niki (Dayton OH) » Wed Oct 18, 2006 6:58 pm

We rode our bikes to the Yellow Springs street fair on Saturday, and at the farmers market there was a gentleman with over 20 different garlic varieties. We bought about 7 kinds...Music, Asian Spice, Russian Red, Miechi, Siberian, and one other I can't recall at the moment. He had descriptions of the flavors, and we've been comparing the varieties in a number of preps. Really like the Music and Asian Spice so far. We'll be planting some of our favorites this weekend!
Cheers,

Niki

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 3 guests

Powered by phpBB ® | phpBB3 Style by KomiDesign