The 2010 Garlic Harvest

I've been working on a meaty, essay-type post, but I'm also still plugging away at the last push of grading for the school year before graduation on Tuesday, so the post lags along—a few sentences a day, as I think of them between papers. But the garden doesn't rest no matter how much real-job work I have to do, so here is a picture-heavy, word-light post of the finally completed allium harvest. Cleaned and almost completely cured, I have now put most of my garlic seed stock in storage (in labeled paper bags in a dark, dry closet) with just a few of the later harvest to store away in the next couple weeks.

I've chosen the two most attractive bulbs of each variety to photograph. I haven't had a chance to taste each variety yet, but I'll give a brief note on growing habits with each portrait. And, you can read notes (if you're interested) on varieties I've grown before here. I've presented the portraits below in the order of harvest this year.

Without further ado, I'd like to introduce the garlic class of 2010.

Shilla
A Turban Variety

As you can see, Shilla gave me some of my largest heads of the year, but it also gave me some of my smallest. The plant matured what seemed to be impossibly early, in the early part of May, and if I had waited any longer, I'm pretty sure the heads would have split. Next year, I'm going to be careful to plant only the absolute largest cloves to ensure lots of heads like those pictured above.

Sonoran
A Turban Variety

In its first year in my garden, Sonoran yielded medium-large bulbs that are all approximately the same size; there were no huge or minute anomalies. It grew quickly and vigorously, nipping at Shilla's heels for early maturity. It has pretty, rounded heads with dark brown-purple stripes.

Red Janice
A Turban Variety

Red Janice bulbs are identical in shape to Shilla and color to Sonoran. It grew very well this year, its first year in my garden, and steadily produced large, many-cloved heads. As you can see in some of these pictures, Turban varieties often have pointed cloves, the top of which tent the bulbs into a weak crown. If this variety tastes as good as it grows, it is a keeper.

Blossom
A Turban Variety

Blossoms bulbs are uniformly huge, another surprise for its first year hear. If a garlic does this well before even acclimating over the course of a few years to soil and climate, it should be stellar later. Like all the Turban varieties, it grew quickly and harvested early. All Turban varieties have vigorous, slightly raggedy (for a garlic, that is) foliage that is a medium green, not blue-tinted like many other varieties.

Lorz Italian
An Artichoke Variety

Lorz Italian really struggled this year, its first in my garden. It was so slow to get started, and it quit growing earlier than I expected it to, considering how small the plants were. The bulbs turned out larger than I imagined they would despite the sparse foliage. However, many of them were misshapen, and quite a few had miniature bulblets just above the bulb. On the positive side, the nicest bulbs were better formed and larger than the seed stock that I planted. We'll see if another year acclimating will produce nicer heads.

Red Toch
An Artichoke Variety

For me, Red Toch just won't quit. It's a reliable producer of large-cloved large bulbs. The plants are typical artichokes, with larger, floppy green leaves. Like other artichokes, it sends up no scape, so all of its energy goes into those big ol' cloves.

Bogatyr
A Marbled Purple Stripe Variety

Small and weak looking its entire life, I wasn't sure that Bogatyr would give me anything, but sure enough, each blue-tinted plant gave me a small head with four or five large-for-the-plant's-size cloves. Keeping me from being disappointed over Bogatyr is my memory of Metechi, perhaps my favorite garlic for flavor, that used to give me small heads that were often single cloves (rounds), but that now grows very well for me. Though small, Bogatyr is mighty pretty, with chiaroscuro coloring in creams, browns, and purples.

Ajo Rojo
A Creole Variety

Ajo Rojo is vigorous and leafy, and each year I grow it, I get bigger and prettier heads. It's a funny grower: most plants give nice scapes (yum, stirfry!), but some don't try to flower at all. There is something about this plant that seems natural here; it feels like the garlic that would grow here natively if garlic were to be native. Thank goodness it is DELICIOUS!

Khabar
A Marbled Purple Stripe Variety

I cannot believe how well Khabar grew for me; as it is a Marbled Purple Stripe, and it is its first year in my garden, I didn't expect heads this large. But grew it did, and mightily so. I wonder how it will compare in flavor to Metechi, my standard for Marbled Purple Stripe flavor. Like other Marbled Purple Stripes, it grew with gorgeous architecture: geometric, symmetrical, and teal-blue.

Applegate
An Artichoke Variety

Consistently, Applegate gives me the biggest, curviest, most seductive heads. However, I don't grow much of it because it is so mild that its best use is raw, and I use more cooked garlic than raw garlic. But I keep it around because it is drop dead gorgeous, peach and tan and creamy, and everyone I share it with really enjoys it.

Metechi
A Marbled Purple Stripe Variety

If you're curious what acclimation does to garlic, scroll up to review Bogatyr. That is what Metechi used to look like for me. Look at this baby now! Almost every head is as large as those pictured, and each is only six or so huge cloves. Thank goodness Metechi is warming up to my microclimate because this is one of my absolute favorite garlics. Very late to harvest, Metechi stays pretty in the garden a long time, holding its almost horizontal blue-green leaves to the very end.

Music
A Porcelain Variety

Everything I have ever read about garlic varieties tells me that Porcelains are not supposed to grow well in our warm climate. Well, Music may grow larger in other climates, but for its first year in my garden, it grew very well. In fact, the plants themselves were downright mighty, towering over all the others by about eight inches. The long leaves splayed out to form an urn shape, and they held their color for a long time. I harvested it alongside Metechi, my standard for late garlics, but I think Music could have used another week. The heads themselves are silken and beautiful, similar in appearance to a Ajo Rojo, but with larger cloves.

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Since nearly all of my garlic is cured and ready for storage, I've bagged the eating garlic to hang in the work room off the kitchen. The most full bag contains Artichoke and Turban varieties because some of them are the shortest storing. The bag on the bottom left contains Marbled Purple Stripes (and the Music will go in there too, once they're finished curing), long lasting and so good in flavor for winter cooking. Finally, the bag on the bottom right is full of Ajo Rojo, my longest storing garlic. Under the silky-white outer wrapper, each clove is thickly blanketed with royal burgundy wrapping, holding in its goodness for a long, long time.



As well this week, I bagged up about four pounds of Sharon's Shallot, a tawny-colored shallot that I received from another Seed Savers member.


And finally, I'm about halfway through the Monticello poppy seed harvest, and I've already collected a quart of seed. Poppy seed recipes, anyone?


Phew, that was a lot more words than I expected to write.

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If you'd like to see what other folks are harvesting this time of year, stop by Daphne's Dandelions, where Daphne graciously hosts Harvest Mondays.