How's everyone's garlic looking?

Testing Garlic, and Elephant Garlic around my fig variety test hill, and a couple flower patches. It does seem to be helping deter allot of the digging by chipmunks and squirrels. It didn’t seem to be helping when first planted late fall and winter of 2025, but as the garlic grew and developed some it seems to be a fairly effective deterrent. Not a 100% cure, but cut back on digging in spots where the garlic is established by around 85-95%, and that is a big difference for me. When our outdoor cats died the chipmunks moved in and I live in the country so when I say they moved in, I’m talking about hundreds and hundreds of them on and around our property. I really just need another pair of outdoor cats that are natural hunters to fix the issue. But garlic ( once it has grown some ) seems to be more effective as a deterrent than I thought it would be.
Aside from that, the one garlic I pulled and tested had more flavor that the parent garlic bulb that came from the grocery store.
No idea on variety, but now I know how much I like growing it I will invest in some actual varieties for testing.
I want a garlic that has that smooth flavor that tastes like garlic smells when roasting without the spicy tone. They used to sell a garlic powder with that flavor profile, but now it’s totally different. That old garlic powder could be applied very heavily to fried potatoes and give an amazing flavor. I want to find a garlic that can produce that kind of powder. And learn how to process it so I get that quality in my own home made garlic powder.

Thats my main goal, or at least find one I can chop up and cook with getting that kind of flavor.
Garlic powder nowadays is just really really spicy with little flavor compared to what I used to buy. I am still buying different brands and testing, but haven’t found a nice very flavorful garlic powder yet. I did find a garlic infused olive oil that was pretty good, but haven’t seen it again.

Any suggestion on a very flavorful garlic with very little spice to it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.


Oh and the garlic that is all flopped over in my fig hill was simply way underwatered. That hill dries out like way fast around the edges. I found that small gravel cures this and allows things to dry still.sowhen I get time I will top off my beds with some pea gravel, and crushed limestone for figs.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_6415.jpeg
    IMG_6415.jpeg
    547.2 KB · Views: 4
  • IMG_6414.jpeg
    IMG_6414.jpeg
    762.9 KB · Views: 2
  • IMG_6413.jpeg
    IMG_6413.jpeg
    781.4 KB · Views: 3
  • IMG_6401.jpeg
    IMG_6401.jpeg
    886.8 KB · Views: 4
I tried Elephant Garlic last year and don't like it. It grows well, but it doesn't smell like garlic at all. The taste wasn't great either. I used to love Music, but the Music seed garlics form Keene had white rot! I will never order from Keene again. German Extra Hardy from Baker Creek is always good, but they don't have too many varieties.
 
Interesting to see when garlic\scapes are ready based on referencing individuals' climatic zone.....a good comparison to my climate.....my scapes are just beginning to form....some zones are colder than mine but probably have higher GDDs...
 
Picked about half of my garlic scapes today and immediately cooked some for dinner. Pan-seared chicken breast with garlic scapes sauteed in butter, and a salad that included home-grown spinach, arugula, and baby kale. Scrumptious!

scapes.jpg

scapes-1.jpg
 
I'm about a week out from scapes! This has me totally psyched now!

I'm thinking the first dish might be a scape frittata! I was also thinking of trying to make scape-butter. 😋
 
TorontoJoe said:
I'm about a week out from scapes! This has me totally psyched now!

I'm thinking the first dish might be a scape frittata! I was also thinking of trying to make scape-butter. 😋
Click to expand...
Scape frittata sounds delicous. My daughter makes a really tasty mushroom quiche.... I'll ask her to make it with scapes... I also want to make a scape omelet. We also like Japanese okonomiyaki.... I want to make it but with 50/50 cabbage and roasted or grilled scapes... so many cool options.
 
TorontoJoe said:
I had to look up okonomiyaki. Sounds amazing! Now you've all got me thinking of what different stuff I can do with the scapes this year.... :)
Click to expand...
It's an amazing dish. My daughter is a fan of Japanese culture and cuisine, and that's her favorite dish. She introduced me to it, and I have to say, it's become one of my favorite dishes too. I do some variations with it, though, like adding sauteed mushrooms, bacon bits, etc. One of my favorite Sunday morning breakfasts.
 
Figgin' A said:
It's an amazing dish. My daughter is a fan of Japanese culture and cuisine, and that's her favorite dish. She introduced me to it, and I have to say, it's become one of my favorite dishes too. I do some variations with it, though, like adding sauteed mushrooms, bacon bits, etc. One of my favorite Sunday morning breakfasts.
Click to expand...
Gonna try it....looked up the recipe....some not so off the shelf ingredients...
 
I have some Mexican Red (silverskin softneck) from last year in the kitchen, still in good enough shape, although not near as tasty as new crop.

Inchelum (artichoke softneck) is sizing very well this year.
20260613_003414.jpg
Had a bit of trouble with sunlight contrast in the photo, but I've been taking scapes for over a week now. You can see the two cultivars in the middle are further ahead at about 1/4 yellow tops. Need to check my map but about 1000 heads and 18 cultivars, half hardnecks half softnecks.
20260613_003131.jpg
 
Capistan said:
I have some Mexican Red (silverskin softneck) from last year in the kitchen, still in good enough shape, although not near as tasty as new crop.

Inchelum (artichoke softneck) is sizing very well this year.
View attachment 24260
Had a bit of trouble with sunlight contrast in the photo, but I've been taking scapes for over a week now. You can see the two cultivars in the middle are further ahead at about 1/4 yellow tops. Need to check my map but about 1000 heads and 18 cultivars, half hardnecks half softnecks.
View attachment 24259
Click to expand...

Wonderful looking patch there!

How long do you wait to remove scapes? I was told once to take them once they've made two rotations.... I feel like that's a bit too long and they'd be more tender if I pulled them sooner
 
I had Romanian Red (Porcelain) years ago and recall it was more suited to my taste than Music (also Porcelain). Maybe it was just the growing conditions when I had it, but RR would develop more heat and flavor when used raw. But it took some time after crushing to develop that flavor which can catch you off guard, like let it stand for 30-60 minutes before adjusting the amount.
First time I made some dip with RR, just kept adding a bit hear and there tasting as I went, even gave it 5 minutes for the flavor to settle, until it had a nice up front garlic flavor. Set it out for the party 2 hours later and the first tester got that wide eyed wasabi reaction, so I tried it and yeah wow put a warning label on that batch. Must have sat there for the whole 2 hours plotting revenge for how I smashed it.
 
TorontoJoe said:
Wonderful looking patch there!

How long do you wait to remove scapes? I was told once to take them once they've made two rotations.... I feel like that's a bit too long and they'd be more tender if I pulled them sooner
Click to expand...
I do them fairly early, but I'm trying to save as much energy for the bulbs as I can. Only rocomoles are going to reliably make two full turns. Some types won't even do one full turn.
 
TorontoJoe said:
Does that softneck store a long time?
Click to expand...
You want the silverskin (softneck) subgroup for longest storage.
Rocamole (hardneck) subgroup have the shortest storage.
There is a strong corrolation between cloves with tight hard to peel skins and storage life.
The skin nearly falls off of a rocambole, and you really need to flex a silverskin clove to loosen it up, although they get easier to peel as they loose moisture in storage.

Artichoke (softneck) subgroup stores well, but not like the silverskin subgroup.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top