Now that I have your attention, I have to tell you I am talking about garlic.
No, no, come back!
I had decided to try to grow garlic over the winter. I have tried before but with limited success; I used some imported Chines garlic as my 'seed' in the past and got very small bulbs for my trouble. There is really no such thing as seed for garlic; you have to plant the cloves. Makes you wonder what would happen if man wasn't here to plant the cloves. Am I being manipulated by a garlic plant?
Man is garlic's way of making more garlic?
This time I purchased some pedigree, purple striped stud garlic from an on-line site, so fingers crossed. In the box, as a free gift, was one of these funny tubular garlic skinning thingos. And it works a treat - you put the clove in the tube and then roll it on a flat surface with your hand and out drops a perfectly naked garlic clove.
And a pile of papery chaff, but it had to be somewhere.
...
How cool are those garlic skinning thingos, saves getting it all over your hands, though I do wear plastic disposable gloves when handling garlic, onion and meats.
ReplyDeleteI have been trying to get hold of some Russian garlic cloves, they have nice plump segments and a delicious milder flavour...but not easy to find. ♥
BTW Lee, garlic plants produce purple flowers for pollination this is where 'seeds' are produced. ♥
ReplyDeleteWell, I am now mightily impressed!
ReplyDeleteFor I have failed sadly using my own galic press.
I squeeze them though
it comes out garlic goo
which though cooks well, in the garden just makes a mess.
(hey. If you want good poetry, go to J cosmo's...
Me? I'm just a word hack whose words keep rhyming like prose.
I never call myself a poet
though my size fourteens show it,
Though every once and a while everything falls together and the whole thing flows
(just not today)
ahh, you're sounding like Michael Pollen and his musings on corn!
ReplyDeleteAnd without you, in time the unharvested garlic bulb would become a great big clump of undersized garlic bulbs!
Good to hear that those tubular things work, I've wondered!
I've seen those things in catalogues, and have wondered about them. I quite like whacking the garlic with a big flat knife though.
ReplyDeleteWe grow elephant garlic, so called because it is very large! We also suspect though that it is called that for another reason, owing to an effect it has which is called to mind by your last post...
old concept, new packaging - a good whack with the flat of a large kitchen knife results: naked, albeit smashed, garlic clove, and the chaff easily lifts off in a single piece ...
ReplyDeletethen again, i hate to cook, preferring to volunteer for 'clean-up duty' afterwards ...
Dianne: I don't believe garlic seed is viable. That is why the cloves are always used for planting.
ReplyDeleteLee dear you are most likely correct, its just that I've seen it advertised at some of the 'garlic' sites. ♡
ReplyDeletecan't help but add to the growing garlic debate.
ReplyDeleteHow Garlic Grows (or is Man necessary for reproduction?)
"Garlic is grown from the individual cloves. Each clove will produce one plant with a single bulb - which may in turn contain up to twenty cloves. Growing garlic is therefore self-sustaining."
Success in growing garlic depends mainly upon the quality of the 'seed clove' (yes, the bigger, the better), ideal growing conditions and keeping the plants disease free.
happy growing.
lola
'former landscape architect' who has never grown common garlic - but plenty of garlic chives !!
The chinese stuff is fumigated and so will not grow well. If you ever see fresh Australian grown garlic - buy it and put the corms in and it will grow. the problem is finding the fresh stuff!!!
ReplyDeleteSo, those rolly things really work?
Love the garlic de-nudifying thingy! Sounds less messy than crushing the garlic with a spoon in order to get the skin off.
ReplyDeletethe giant garlic plants are gorgeous in full, purple bloom. we have not been successful growing it here in the pacific nw, but in the hot southern US it grew happily.
ReplyDelete'am i being manipulated by the garlic plant?' - thats funny!
ReplyDeleteOh and I just noticed your note - yes I do appreciate you not forcing us to type words our brain will NEVER decipher.
Magic! I will have to try growing some now.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lee. We're just about to embark on the home garlic voyage.
ReplyDeleteInteresting hint from lady jicky. We get local grown garlic at times. Hadn't thought of trying that. Will do next time.
Re peeling - I just show them the side of the BIG knife and the little skins just jump off on their own!
Best of luck with it-I love garlic!
ReplyDelete