Spring Garlic

Picture from thegarlicfarm.co.uk ... comes with recipe, too. 

What is Spring Garlic? … and how did I go so many years without knowing about it?

I just found out about this wonderful delicacy recently!

Green garlic aka spring garlic, young garlic, baby garlic, wet garlic (I don’t know about that terminology, it sounds kind of nasty), garlic shoots, garlic rounds, single clove garlic ….

It is young garlic that has not gone through the winter chilling so does not develop into cloves but rather stays in a round bulb, almost like an onion or a shallot. It is milder in flavour but definitely tastes like garlic.

Picture from SPIN farming

How to grow green garlic?

Plant cloves in late winter or early spring in a bright, sunny location.

Plant them really close together, about one inch apart, for baby rounds or if you want to harvest them when bigger rounds, plant 2 inches apart.

Separate the bulbs into cloves, push them about 2 inches deep, just as you would in the fall. No difference except that you can plant them much closer together. Grows well in pots, too.

Water once a week. Make sure you have rich soil as garlic is a heavy feeder. Add nutrients by top dressing or side dressing with manure or compost, add blood meal (nitrogen for strong tops) and bone meal (phosphorous for great roots and bulbs) if needed.

Picture from Garden Betty.

How to use it? What to do with it?

Spring garlic can be eaten at any stage…

Eat the tender stalks instead of green onions, or enjoy them as small partially formed bulbs. Leave some to become bigger rounds for roasting or bbq’ing.

Saute garlic on a low heat with a bit of evoo or butter and pink Himalayan sea salt, then toss in with pretty near any veggies from artichokes to potatoes, asparagus, or spring greens. Tastes fantastic with pasta, too. Just a bit of butter, a titch of Asiago cheese, and this garlic is all you need for a lovely fresh tasting summer pasta.

Use anywhere that you would use garlic, leeks, or spring onions…. on your mashed potatoes, in a gravy, on pizza, in salads… anywhere!

Best of all… Makes an easy, lovely, garlic powder that is much easier to prepare for dehydrating than peeling all those cloves from your fall garlic. Just wash up, trim, slice, and lay out to dry, easy peasy, no peeling required.

Picture from the NY Times Well Blog - for green garlic recipes.

What to do if you want them to form into cloves instead of growing as rounds?

You will want to give them a chill in the fridge for four to eight weeks first. Take a plastic baggie, poke some holes into it for air flow, put the cloves in the baggie. Check on your garlic once or twice a week to make sure it isn’t growing mouldy or sprouting. If they’re putting on roots or shoots, plant them up!

LA Times...  picture and recipes 

Try Spring Garlic… I really think you’re gonna like it.

Put some cloves in between your rows of carrots or cabbages for organic pest control, to confuse those pests.

Tuck a row here or there for making into a creamy garlic spread on your homemade sourdough bread that you mastered making during the past pandemic ear.

I mean.. it’s garlic, what’s not to like? Happy gardening!