Every gardener should grow garlic, and it's almost time to get it planted.
Garlic has to be the easiest plant to grow, and if I was ever going to pack it up and become a farmer, it would be to grow acres of garlic.
The only way to do it is to get some good seed garlic, either locally or through the mail. The garlic that we can grow in this climate is called hardneck, and it is planted during the second week of October. Most of the garlic available in the grocery stores are softneck varieties from California and are not hardy to grow here. Besides that, the garlic sold to eat is usually treated with a fungicide to prevent sprouting.
The first thing, as in all planting, is to prepare the soil. Get the bed turned over, and improve it with some organic matter such as compost or aged manure. Sprinkling some bone meal in the planting holes is a good idea, but mix the bone meal with the soil.
To plant garlic, take the head and separate it into cloves, then place each clove (root side down) about 6 inches down. Cover the clove with loose soil and continue planting, spacing each clove about 8 inches apart. Soak the area well, and then mulch it with straw or some compost. Underground, the cloves grow roots and ready themselves for the long winter ahead.
Early next spring, one of the great treasures of the early season is born -- garlic greens. They can be lightly harvested all spring and used in salads or cooked with butter. As the season progresses, the greens get 2 or 3 feet tall, and the plant sends up a seed stalk, called a scape. The scape should be cut off to allow the plant to use all its energy on the bulb. But don't throw away the scape. It's considered a delicacy in Korean cooking, and I just love them. They can be diced and used raw if you're really a garlic lover or can be cut up and used for cooking.
Toward the end of July, the leaves will start to turn brown. When 40 percent of the leaves have turned, it's time to harvest your bulbs. Put the bulbs in a cool dry spot for a few weeks and, they're ready for storage.
Fresh garden garlic is as different from the garlic shipped in from California as a homegrown tomato is from a store-bought one. It's wonderfully pungent, powerful and tasty.
There are almost as many types of garlic as there are tomatoes, and that makes planting lots of fun. I've always grown 'German white,' and 'Music,' but I'm going to try some different varieties this year. I'm really interested in 'Romania red' and 'Spanish roja.' A few other interesting varieties are 'Georgian fire,' 'Rosewood,' 'Ozark' and 'Carpathian.'
Garlic lovers are a breed apart from normal human beings; they love the smell of garlic. In fact, it's kind of like working in a gas station -- you just don't really smell it anymore.
I realized what effect garlic has on ordinary people one day when my brother visited for dinner. He doesn't usually eat much garlic so I thought I would surprise him with one of my favorite dishes, garlic chicken. He absolutely loved it, and after his third helping he was finally satisfied.
The next night, my sister-in-law called warning me never to feed her husband whatever it was I had cooked the night before. She said there was a terrible garlic smell emanating from his pores. She had made my brother sleep on the couch for three days.
When I related the story to my wife, we looked at each other, thinking about all the garlic we eat. We realized we really must stink. I guess it's worth it to enjoy one of the most wonderful and simplest things to grow in the garden.
I like to order my garlic from a place in Ohio called Bobba-Mike's Garlic Farm. They have many of the varieties listed above. If you're planning on ordering from them, do it right away. This is the end of their season, but they've agreed to fill as many orders as possible for gardeners in western Pennsylvania. Their mailing address is: Bobba-Mike's Garlic Farm, Box 261, Orrville, OH 44667. To order from the Web, log on at http://www.garlicfarm.com/index.html.
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Remember, tomato growers, I'll be standing in front of the Post-Gazette building Downtown today from 1 to 3 p.m. to collect your entries for the Great Tomato Taste-Off. I and a few other judges will then hold a blind taste test to choose the top 10 varieties. Each entry should be in a paper bag with the name of the tomato variety, your name, address and phone number.
