Having only taken over my plot in April I didn’t have much time to research garlic varieties last year & being in a hurry to get something in the ground I just picked up a bag of an unnamed variety in my local garden centre – I did have a crop but nothing to rave about and chose not to save any cloves for replanting. Of course I now realise that I should have had them planted out much earlier and am much better prepared this year.
So back in the autumn I gave it a little more thought although also gave considerations to cost (which I’m not slightly regretting!). Anyway, for a named variety I opted for Lautrec White, a hardneck type, because I’ve never eaten garlic scapes and decided the best way to get some were to grow and harvest my own. Why Lautrec white? Simply because it came across as being one of the best tasting garlics – and taste has to be top of my list of desired features for any crop. I am a little concerned though that it isn’t partial to damp conditions being as my plot was pretty sodden when I took it on – hoping the raised beds I’ve put it will keep it out of the worst of the flooding! My economy purchase was a 500g bag of assorted softneck varieties from Simply Seeds. I thought this way I could sample a number of varieties without being completely overrun – but the downside is I may not be able to identify my favourite post harvest, hence my slight regret. And although not a true garlic I have also planted Elephant garlic – some from Simply Seeds and some other cloves I picked up at the Malvern Autumn show although I omitted to make note of the seller/grower. And finally I have purchased for planting in spring some wilder types of garlic including Crow garlic, allium vineale, from Norfolk Cottage Gardens and Ransoms, allium ursinum, given to me by a friend, Other garlic flavoured plants I already have include garlic chives Allium tuberosum, and society garlic, Tulbaghia violacea.
I’m looking forward to seeing how they all turn out next year but meanwhile have been reading a little about garlic heritage.
“Garlick maketh a man wynke, drynke, and stynke” – or so said Thomas Nashe in The Unfortunate Traveller first published in 1594. It seems that garlic has, in the UK, waxed and waned in popularity over the centuries. The fact that the name by which it is widely known originates from the Anglo Saxon word gārlēac, suggests that it was known in Britain from ancient times. (If you are interested in more on the etymology of this and other herbs and spices I can recommend Gernot Katzer’s Spice pages but don’t blame me if you lose yourself in it for a few hours!) Another disliker of garlic was John Evelyn who described it thus in Aceteria: A Discourse of Sallets
Garlick, Allium; Whilſt we abſolutely forbid it entrance into our Salleting, by reaſon of its intolerable Rankneſs, and which made it ſo deteſted of old; that the eating of it was (as we read) part of the Puniſhment for ſuch as had committed the horrid’ſt Crimes. To be ſure, ’tis not for Ladies Palats, nor thoſe who court them, farther than to permit a light touch on the Diſh, with a Clove thereof, much better ſupply’d by the gentler Roccombo
But despite his objection to its use in salads he is apparently credited with being a promoter of ‘enriching salads by rubbing garlic around the dish as the Brahmins did’.
Luckily garlic seems to be undergoing a renaissance, helped by growers in the UK and North America (& elsewhere) who are once again introducing us to the wide range of varieties available to both grow for ourselves or to consume. I’m certainly looking forward to discovering more for myself about the nuances of flavour from those I am trying out in 2019.
PS I came across a great piece of writing about garlic and its cultural and emotional associations in a essay by Stephanie Susnjara published in Creative NonFiction in 2006. It’s available to read on the Jstor website which you can sign up to for free and read a limited number of articles.
My Plenty Food Project 