Garlic Harvest 2010

“What are you going to do with it all?” he said.  “There is no such thing as too much garlic,” she replied.  I agree you can never have too much garlic.  There is so much pleasure in growing and cooking with foods from your back yard, especially garlic.  But I get as much pleasure in giving it away to fellow garlic enthusiast as I do in cooking it.   Each year we get better at growing larger heads – and bigger is better.  It’s too much work peeling a lot of little cloves of garlic.  They’re too slippery when they are fresh.  Music, our favorite garlic from Territorial Seed, is a hard neck variety with five or six fat cloves around a central stem.  Full flavor, not too hot, and a good keeper, it has come in early this year.  We harvested the last of it Saturday – at least two weeks ahead of last year. 

The McGowans were the first to sample this year’s harvest.  Danny and Kelly stopped by just as we finished harvesting Saturday afternoon.  The picnic table was piled high with freshly dug plants and the air was filled with garlic perfume.  I sent them home with a handful of garlic and Kelly tossed it with fresh pasta, olive oil, and herbs.  As we wind up another garlic harvest, I think we have created another fresh garlic enthusiast. 

Do you have a favorite fresh garlic recipe? Tips for growing garlic?  A favorite variety?  Share it with us here.