I’ve begun to harvest this year’s garlic crop, starting with the Juan de Fuca Wonder from Blythe Barbo and her Barbolian Fields garlic: great big heads, almost the size of apples. And the shot above shows what they looked like above ground. These are scapes, the wondrous stalks that garlic sends up as it grows. I think they are sort of otherworldly and fascinating as they bend and curl. Eventually they straighten and face skyward. Scapes can be sautéed and can be used as flavoring. They have a mild garlic flavor.
This is what they look like if they start to “bloom.” There are tiny bulblets inside that can be cultivated like seed to grow more garlic, though it’s faster to plant cloves from a head.
It remains to be seen how my garlic does as it dries. We had a rainstorm that thoroughly wetted the ground right around the time I intended to harvest – not good. I waited for the ground to dry out. . . I’m not sure if it was quite dry enough. We’ll see.
Our Kay is a lady farmer?! Bought some garlic bulbs recently at our Farmers Market, but don’t quite what to do with them since they’re different from any others I have ever purchased. Didn’t really get any garlic flavor from them when I cooked. How many varieties of garlic are there?
Wonderful photos – and I learned something new.
I’ve learned more about garlic here than I’d ever need to know! 🙂 These things do look a lot like alien creatures rising from the earth after having been left here to mature many years ago by a UFO from a distant planet.
More Sequim education for this easterner. The photos are fine. A garlic the size of an apple? That is new!