Drive a Stake Through It

I haven’t bought garlic since 1996. That’s because I grow enough to eat a bulb of garlic every day, year-round. While most of my garden adventures are hobby-level attempts at self-sufficiency, my garlic crop is for real.

Garlic is an over-wintering crop, planted in fall and harvested in midsummer. So if you want to have a crop next year, it’s time to think about planting.

A year’s supply of garlic hanging in your garage hints at many great meals to come, but by the time you reach that milestone, the rewards have already been flowing for months. Your first return arrives in early spring, when your garlic races out of the ground. It’s a foot tall when your neighbors’ gardens are still empty brown patches.

As spring continues, your plants will continue to skyrocket, and in late May — assuming you planted a flowering variety — you’ll be treated to a funky display of garlic blossoms curling from the plant tops. These should be harvested and enjoyed, both because they’re tasty and because not harvesting the flowers will result in smaller bulbs.

The flowering varieties of garlic are collectively called hardnecks, so named because of their woody flowering stalks. Hardneck garlic generally has better flavor, peels easier and has larger and more uniform cloves, but most large producers grow softneck garlic, which is what you’re more likely to find at the store.

The first step in growing your own garlic stash is getting your paws on some good garlic for planting. Seed garlic, marketed expressly for planting, is available from nurseries, seed catalogs and online, but there’s negligible difference between that and any other garlic you’ll find. The only advantage to buying seed garlic, which is considerably more expensive, is that you can choose your variety, and efforts have been made to ensure it’s disease-free.

You must find a variety suited to your home region, and the obvious way to acquire such a variety is to buy high-grade locally grown garlic — which obviously grows well where you live. A great option is your farmers market, where growers will be able to tell you the conditions in which their garlic grew and will probably be able to tell you what kind it is.

You’ll also need to estimate how much you need to plant to get the size crop you want — enough to eat, plus enough to plant next fall.

Now for the easy part. Garlic is generally planted in October or November. It’s a heavy feeder, so you want good dirt with plenty of organic material and nitrogen. Carefully break the bulbs into individual cloves, leaving the peel on and making sure the little scabby plate at the bottom of each clove remains intact. Plant the cloves with the scabby side down, an inch deep, six inches apart, in rows. Then mulch your patch with straw — not hay — about an inch deep. The mulch will keep your garlic warm in the winter and help the soil retain moisture. Come spring, the young garlic will poke through the mulch, and then it’s off to the races. Make sure to keep it well-watered. When the leaves start turning brown, despite your dedicated watering, it’s time to harvest.

Entire books have been written on this subject, so if you’re serious about investing your time, money and land into a big garlic crop, you might want to consult a more in-depth source. I recommend Growing Great Garlic by Ron Engeland.

In the meantime, hit the farmers market, get some seed and get planting. The thought of those roots spreading under the mulch will help get you through the winter.

WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THAT GARLIC

ROAST IT
Richard Alderton, at the garlic-centric White House in Post Falls, says the trick to good roasted garlic is to keep it simple:

1) Preheat your oven to 360 degrees.
2) Spray the pan with cooking oil.
3) Peel the garlic, separate cloves, cut off root bit and set it on a pan.
4) Place in the oven for 30-45 minutes (until soft). Will get dark in color.

If you absolutely have to get crazy, Alderton says leave the garlic alone: roast tomatoes or vegetables alongside for variety.

INFUSE OIL WITH IT
So you’ve had the garlic-infused oil at Mizuna right? It’s delicious. You’ve probably even thought, “Hey, I’ll just drop a few cloves in my oil and let that sucker marinate! I bet that’ll be good!”

You’d be wrong, though. That’ll give you botulism. Garlic’s crawling with it. Who told us that? The Internet!

“Well,” you think, “I can just seal it up real tight and put it in the fridge…”

Wrong again! Botulism is anaerobic, meaning it thrives without oxygen. So do yourself a favor: If you need your garlic-and-oil fix and can’t get to the ’Zuna, heat the oil in a skillet to at least 200 degrees Fahrenheit before dropping the garlic cloves in and sautéing for a few minutes. That way the heat can kill the botulism before it can kill you!

Afterward, feel free to bottle and drizzle to your heart’s content.

CURE YOUR VARIOUS AILMENTS
In La Dolce Vegan, Sarah Kramer offers a pungent cure-all named “Jessica’s Cure What Ails Ya Garlic Soup.” It goes like this:

1 small onion, chopped
1 head garlic, minced (approx. 4 Tbsp)
3 large button mushrooms, finely chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups vegetable stock
2 tsp tamari (or soy sauce)
2 tsp miso paste
1/2 cup “milk” substitute

In a medium soup pot on medium heat, sauté the onions, garlic and mushrooms in the oil until the onions are translucent. Add the stock, then bring to a boil and reduce heat. In a small bowl, stir together the tamari and miso paste and 2 Tbsp of the hot soup stock as prepared above. Stir until miso is smooth. Add the miso and “milk” to soup. Reheat and serve. Makes two small or four large servings. Serve with crunchy bread and fresh green salad. Do not eat before a date. — Compiled by Luke Baumgarten, Leah Sottile and Seth Sommerfeld