1. Because fresh garlic tastes better than any garlic you can buy!

2. It is an essential flavoring in so many foods, so it is important to use the best quality.

3. If stored properly, the crop will last a year — that is, until the next crop is harvested.

4. It is a low-maintence plant for home-gardeners to grow. Plant cloves in October, weed in the spring, cut off the scape in May, harvest in July.

If you are growing garlic, now is the time to cut off the scapes. Do not cut off the leaves! The scape is the curly-q which will flower. Each plant has one scape. We don’t want our garlic to flower; we want all the energy to go into growing the bulb underground. The scapes seem to spring up overnight; yesterday I only saw a couple and today every plant had a scape.

Our 1,300 garlic plants look pretty healthy and the air is perfumed with garlic. Maybe I’ll string a clothes line the row and hang a couple of steaks to marinate for dinner!

Join us on July 15 for an all-garlic cooking class featuring our freshly-harvested local garlic. Yes, there will be garlic available for purchase at Kitchen Conservatory. Stay tuned for the harvest date!