I sometimes order gourmet garlic directly from a grower in Montana. A copy of their recent email to me is below. The question is, is similar quality garlic available locally? If so, where and what types are available.

Yes, there's alot of good garlic grown locally. There's a woman (from Solitude Farm) who sells garlic at the Dupont Market (she's the one who sells yarn too). She usually has at least 8 varieties (I never seem to remember their odd names, though-- seems like there's dozens of different ones). I've gotten some incredible tasting garlic from her-- a world of difference from the stuff you get at the store. She should be selling garlic pretty soon, as I think it's the start of the season here now.

I get local garlic from another supplier as well. Not sure how he feels about me divulging his info here, though.

Never having had "gourmet" garlic before, it was nearly a revelation trying Solitude's garlic after I roasted a couple of varieties. I need to get over to Dupont to pick up some more.

Unfortunately you have missed Solitude Farm's two week season. Last week was their second week

So my brother e-mails me this picture of cloves of garlic from the same bulb. He said that all the cloves appeared normal as the one on the left except for these two golden cloves. Apparently they had a normal garlic aroma as well. He didn't try cooking with them.

Any idea how this can be explained? We're considering starting some sort of Golden Garlic Cult if this mystery cannot be solved.

All praise the Clove of Enlightenment,
Al

Were the two mutants as firm as the normal one?

Yep.

My guess is that there were minute breaks in the skin and those two cloves became oxidized.

This year we are going to plant garlic in our garden.

There is a bewildering variety to choose from, yet I have only experienced the silverskins you can buy in any and every grocery store across America.

Does anybody have experience with more exotic varieties of garlic?

I had no idea, I assumed garlic was garlic. I'm interested in details on other varieites too if anyone can share.

Some garlic links I've found interesting:

Filaree farm -- will probably order from them since you can buy only 1/4 of a lb. of a variety, think I will try four. They also sell multiple variety packages.
http://www.filareefarm.com/

Other sellers of garlic "seeds" (actually heads, you plant the cloves):

The Garden Store:
http://thegarlicstore.com/index.cgi/INDEX.HTML

Gourmet Garlic Gardens:
http://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/

Lots of info at GardenWeb.com's Allium forum:
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/allium/

For two or three Sundays in late summer early fall (I think) there is a stand at the Dupont Market that sells about a dozen varieties of garlic. You would be amazed at the differences of the different varieties.

True dat. Last summer I picked up a random 3 varieties at Dupont, slow roasted them all, and they each had quite different character. It was an eye opening experience, and hey, no vampires.

I ordered some garlic from these people once and also was amazed at the variation in flavor.

Hmmm. If there is a winter get-together maybe we should have a garlic tasting.

The only thing is, as I understand it, the hardnecks don't keep very long.

October 14 and 15, 2006, 15th Annual Virginia Wine and Garlic Festival at Rebec Vineyards in Amherst, which suggests to me that October is harvest season in Virginia.
http://www.rebecwinery.com/vwgf.htm

(Why is it, when I try to start a new post, it just adds itself to the bottom of my last post?)

OK, y'all, I ordered 1/4 lb. each of Lorz Italian, Shandong, Georgian Fire, Nootka Rose and Sicilian Silver from Filaree Farms. Total for the order, including shipping via UPS, is $35.40.

Will let y'all know how it goes.

Next stop, figuring out how to plant leeks.

The garlic stand was there today, a few weeks early. They had four different varieties and different sizes of each variety. I picked up Inchelium red, Romanian Red and Persian Star (I think). They will be back once more this season, on August 6th, with a different variety than they had today. All the garlics last at least 3 months and some last as long as 6 months so I stocked up on today's batch and will again in two weeks.

The stand also sells hand made wool, for those who like to knit while roasting their garlic.

What would be the best way to compare different varieties if you gathered a few in one place and at the same time? Garlic bread?

Whole roasted bulbs! On your favorite bread preparation-- crusty baguette, thin toasted baguette slices, etc.

I would also sautee them-the garlic will have a different flavor. Maybe slice or mince the garlic, sautee in olive oil, and pour over pasta? If you are daring, and no one is on a date, you might want to try it raw as well. The flavors will be vastly different according to the garlic stand women.

Woo hoo! Glad I ran across this post!

I've never been to the Dupont Farmer's Market, what's the best way to get there and what is the best time to go there? Is it near the metro stop?

It's right, smackdab, right by the Q Street exit of the Metro. Much the best way to get there.

Korean people consume a lot of garlic. I mean A LOT. We pickle garlic cloves with soy sauce or vinegar so it can be a part of bahnchan.

I have been wondering how Koreans make pickles, since I just started making pickles myself. Only cucumber pickles, using a recipe from the Ball canning book, but with lots more garlic than they suggest.

Do Koreans use Ball-style jars with the two part lids? Or refrigerator pickles? Or fermentation?

Inquiring minds want to know . . . .

I can tell you how Mexicans make pickled garlic--ajo en escabeche.

Make a brine with 1/2 cider vinegar, 1/2 rice vinegar, diluted with a small amount of water, (enough to cover the amount of peeled garlic cloves you have) with enough salt to make it mildly salty. Add chopped carrot and celery, a few sliced jalapeño or serrano chiles (depends on how much garlic you're starting with and how spicy you like it), bay leaf, oregano, whole allspice berries and black peppercorns. Bring it to a boil and then turn off the heat, and let it sit until it has cooled. Transfer to a jar and let it sit for a couple of days in the fridge before using. Will keep in the fridge for months.

That sounds really good! Wish I could get Creole garlic here, which would probably be perfect for this.

Bought some Chinese garlic today at Super H that has red streaks in the skin sort of like Creole garlic but peeled smells the same as white Chinese garlic.

Maybe I can talk my dad into sending me a care package!

(BTW, Super H today has really lovely collards, on the tender side and well washed.)

I once made about year's supply of ajo en escabeche with a mongo container of peeled Gilroy garlic from Costco. I put a lot of chiles, carrots, celery and onions in with it, so it was really verduras en esabeche. That stuff is addictive! I haven't made any in a while, because I don't have enough room in my refrigerator, with all the other oils, pickles, preserves, concentrates I've got in there. But now that you've got me thinking about it...

There are 2 kinds of pickled garlic. One is pickled with vinegar and the other is pickled with soy sauce.
The following is the basic method of making them:

Vinegar pickled garlic
Brine garlic cloves for a day and drain the water.
Make the vinegar mix (water, sugar and rice vinegar) and pour onto garlic cloves.
Let pickle for a week (or 15 minutes if you're impatient)

Soy sauce pickled garlic
Place whole garlic in vinegar mix (water, sugar and rice vinegar) for a week
drain the vinegar mix
pour soy sauce onto whole garlic
let pickle for a week.

Place in a covered jar and that's it. Let them sit.

Ilane, if you go to Super H often, please visit the shelf where the Kimchi corner is (you can go straight from the meat section). There is pickled garlic in containers. Sometimes, they have tasting sessions and you can try them and see if you like the taste.

I just received the following email. I've ordered garlic from these people in the past and it is first rate.

QUOTE

Dear Faithful Friends and Customers,

Another season of garlic is out of the ground and hanging to
cure. We had a near perfect year for growing garlic - a wet spring
and then a hot and sunny summer. We planted many of your favorites,
including the Montana Music, and added one new Rocambole strain this
year (Sandpoint). We should be ready to ship within a couple of
weeks so if you haven't already, we encourage you place your order
for the best stock. If you aren't sure what you want, please visit
our website for full descriptions of all of our strains. If you're
still not sure, as always, feel free to contact us for advice!` Don't
forget, also, that the best way to have hardneck garlic throughout
the year is to order what you'll need for the year and, come
December, peel and freeze what you haven't eaten yet. They'll look a
bit strange when frozen but they'll keep all of their flavor and they
have so much sugar that they never really freeze solid so you can
chop or press them almost right out of the freezer!

As usual, your order will be send USPS priority mail and we will
include an invoice in with your garlic. If you have prepaid your
order, your payment will be reflected on the invoice. Thank you
again for your past (and future) business - we look forward to
working with you in the future.

In the coming weeks, we will also introduce you to a few friends and
co-workers who will be taking a more active role in our garlic
business in the coming year. Without them, we could never have
grown past our initial little garlic plot! Look for our email
introduction soon. Until then, enjoy!

Sincerely,

Nicole

Nicole Smart
Montana Gourmet Garlic
www.montanagourmetgarlic.com
mgg@montana.com
406-825-3007

the garlic stand women are right, i would say, at least tasting two of them raw last night. the differences were less clear after they were roasted in olive oil and a few pinches of sea salt, but along with some butter on some thick slices of oven-warmed ciabatta, accompanying a lightly-dressed tomato salad, they made a great dinner. i have maybe a half dozen more varieties to taste, but i know i'm not going to get their distinctions straight until at least next summer when the cloves reappear across from the skeins of wool.

the ciabatta from breadline was okay, not really stellar and it had picked up some char on its crust, but steaming it in the oven did an effective job of bringing out the best it had and it reminded me a little of something home-made that you start eating before you have allowed it to properly cool.

This Wednesday at Foggy Bottom, the "other"Sunnyside Farms, whom I believe set up on Sundays at the Mass Ave end of the Dupont Market, had a variety of garlic, for those interested in continuing their taste tests.

Grand Mart at Seven Corners has bags of garlic scapes today.

For those not "in the know" garlic scapes are the shoots from certain varieties of garlic, the hardneck varieties, and they are supposed to be delicious.

I bought a bag, will report back after I cook it, but wanted to let people know in case they want to try for themselves before I report back.

Also, that same Grand Mart has a variety of "pumpkin" that looks as if it may be the echt elusive kadu. They call it calaboza but it's got a bluish skin and a scalloped shell, maybe a variety of Hubbard squash? Sold in cut pieces only.

I am still working on my kadu quest, have cut up and cooked five varieties of squash and pumpkin so far and plan to post soon with photos and recipes.

Re: garlic beds to come. I've put clear plastic sheets on the ground that will be used for my garlic beds come October, held down with bricks and rocks in order to sterilize/solarize the soil. Hopefully we can have a garlic tasting next year.

If others wish to join this quest, let's talk.

Report back on clear plastic to "solarize" the soil. When I pulled up the plastic, only some very strong weeds were growing, no grass or dandelion or chickweed. Not sure if this is really a good idea, or not. The soil underneath was very dry, no earthworms. The red plastic mulch under the tomatoes kept all weeds from growing and the soil was moist, crumbly and full of earthworms.

The fall shipment of garlic "seeds" arrived from Filaree Farm. Added together with the varieties scored from Solitude in Loudoun County, this is what needs to be planted.

From Filaree: Georgian Fire (porcelain); Nootka Rose (silverskin); Shandong (arti-bean); Sicilian Silver.

From Solitude: Creole Red; Metechi; Nootka Rose; Persian Star; Polish; Solitude Silver.

A check on the Filaree Farm website (link) suggests they still have garlic to order.

Solitude isn't going to farm market anymore this season but perhaps they have some if you call them 540-554-2312 in Round Hill, VA.

This should probably kinda be in the News and Media section, but it's actually just a journal study.

Cooking Garlic? Crush It First

CBS News Feb. 16

(WebMD) Got a recipe that involves cooking garlic? You might want to crush the garlic first — that may be the best way to preserve the herb's healthy compounds during cooking, a new study shows. Garlic contains compounds shown to help prevent blood clots. But most garlic studies have tested raw garlic, and cooking can damage those anticlotting compounds. Crushing garlic may help prevent that damage, report the researchers, who include Claudio Galmarini, Ph.D., of the agricultural sciences faculty at Argentina's Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Galmarini's team found that garlic cooked for three minutes in boiling water or in an oven at about 400 degrees Fahrenheit has the same amount of the anticlotting compounds as raw garlic. But cooking uncrushed garlic for six minutes "completely suppressed" those compounds' anticlotting effects, the researchers write. Galmarini's team then tried crushing the garlic by putting it through a garlic press before cooking. That helped preserve the compounds, although they still lost much of their anticlotting effects after three to six minutes. The study appears in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Some y'all garlic heads might want to head over to Mt. Pleasant Saturday Mornings for the exotic garlic from Audia's Farm. My wife bought it and all she could remember was "Khazhakstani" but there were a couple other varieties. They can bring stuff to Takoma Park on Sundays if you call them and ask nice 410-489-7117.