Planting Garlic

Wisconsin site on Garlic 

Last fall, while travelling through the Okanagan and finding the cost of fresh apples costly, I purchased two bulbs of garlic from an elderly man at the Penticton Farmer's Market.  Yes, these bulbs were very costly, but I had plans to plant the bulbs which I did.  This was my first time and I was successful. The two varieties were Yugoslavian white and Persian Star.

Yugoslavian  (Rocambole hardneck) Copper veined and purple blotched bulbs.   Deep green and vigorous plants.   Matures a few days after Roja.   Cloves are dark brown and doubles are common.   It has a strong garlic aroma, initially hot and spicy garlic, but not overwhelming and then mellowing to a warm pleasant, sweet aftertaste.    Averages 9 to 14 cloves per bulb

Persian Star  (Standard Purple Stripe)  This one has some vivid clove colors.  The outer bulb wrapper is sometimes smooth white but the inner wrappers are purple streaked.  It has red-tipped cloves with marbled streaks on a whitish or yellow-brown back ground.   It has a very pleasant flavor with a mild spicy zing.   Originally from a  Samarkand, Uzbekistan bazaar in the late 1980's.  Averages 7 cloves per bulb.

The Long History of Garlic

 In talking to growers of garlic in my home town, I learned that you need to cut the flowers of the stems as it draws away from the production of the bulb.  The tiny bulbils that are seen in the flower can be dried and used to propagate more garlic.  Just leave it on the stem until harvest.  Or you can steam the bulbils and serve as a yummy side dish.  


I think my arrangement is quite pretty!  

Harvest of garlic bulbs! Oct 4th 

Gift giving of Garlic

I returned from my home town with garlic given to me from my high school classmate, a cousin and an elderly woman who also shared a recipe for high bush cranberry jelly.

My classmate gave me  a box of apples and pears from her garden and she laughing handed me a garlic bulb from her garden!