Last night we held our inaugural taste test festival!!!   We only had four judges...and it was held over a dinner of soba noodles, cheese and wine...but what glamorous garlic officials they were - the results are out!

The garlic was ROASTED for 40 mins in foil with some olive oil, salt and pepper.
Included in the test was one store bought non-organic bulb of garlic from China.

This is a no holds barred, non censored survey!  The judges didn't agree on everything, and each person had a different favourite!

 For customers who have purchased our seven variety Heritage Garlic Packs please share your flavour insights in the COMMENTS section! Please note how you cooked the garlic, because the comparisons will change depending on whether they're roasted, stir fried, raw, etc!  Thanks!

Garlic Glamorist Sheniz Kassam
1. Puslinch - sweet, tender
2. Spanish Roja- 
3.Yugoslavian Porcelain - mild, dull
4. German Red - small bite, pungent smell
5. Persian Star - earthy, creamy
6. Georgian Fire - dull/ brick
7. Leningrad - like banana, mild/ friendly
8. China Store bought garlic - lemony, sweet

Garlic Grower Cara Conroy-Low
1. Puslinch - mild, round
2. Spanish Roja-  lively, multi layered and strong
3.Yugoslavian Porcelain - starchier texture like potato, less hot than German Rd
4. German Red - spicy hint on tongue, leaves a hot taste, like durian fruit, red wine
5. Persian Star - white wine, mild, smooth
6. Georgian Fire - slightly 'green' spice taste
7. Leningrad - nice, not spicy
8. China Store bought garlic - sour flavour, pungent, not spicy

Garlic Go Getter Denise Haugh
1. Puslinch - round
2. Spanish Roja-  subtle with a hint of flame, delicate
3.Yugoslavian Porcelain - similar to persian star, but a little stronger, round taste.
4. German Red - sting-y, stronger than persian star
5. Persian Star - soft mellow, a little heat at end, round.
6. Georgian Fire - hotter than persian star and puslinch
7. Leningrad -like persian star, no bite at the end.
8. China Store bought garlic - some fire, most round.

Garlic Go Go Michelle Heinz: 
1. Puslinch - fuzzy
2. Spanish Roja-  subtle with a hint of flame, delicate
3.Yugoslavian Porcelain - starchy like potato with a touch of heat at the end
4. German Red - hard shell, sweet, long heat on tongue after
5. Persian Star - round sweet full, spicy flavour
6. Georgian Fire - hot, starchy
7. Leningrad - sweet, light, delicate,
8. China Store bought garlic - overkill, hot after, least mild.

Our Garlic Scapes are currently maturing their Bulbils and are ready for order!  This year we left a lot of our heritage garlic bulbs in the ground, intact with their scapes.  They have now just about completed their growth into  seed bulbils.  Bulbils are delicious. One customer at the farmers market told me he loves stir frying them!  They are like tiny garlic bulbs and are genetic clones of their parent (so aren't like a true seed born from a flower).

If you are contemplating whether to grow from cloves or from bulbils:  Bulbils take longer to grow. It takes several years to grow full sized bulbs and you need to harvest and replant each year of the propagation process.  Growing directly from garlic cloves take only one year on the other hand.

However, the benefits of bulbils are that there are tonnes of them on each garlic plant - thus you can increase your garlic stock with less expense.  Secondly, the bulbils never touch the ground, so there is less chance of spreading soil-borne disease, which some growers are prone to.

We look forward to harvesting our bulbils later this week - they make for a great seed bank / genetic stock reserve, should anything go wrong with our  garlic bulb stock.

Most growers in Canada plant their garlic seed in October.  We generally start anywhere from mid September and stop by mid- October.

If planted too late in the fall, the garlic will not start decent root growth until the following spring, which means they get off to a slower start. (rooting precedes sprouting and leaf growth).

Garlic an also be planted too early - too much top growth before winter can sometimes result in winter damage.   However dont' worry too much if you have some sprouting in the fall and then the leaves are killed by frost - Winter kill of garlic tnds to occur when both the clove and roots are suddenly frozen, not the leaves.

What size bulbs to plant:  When choosing seed stock, a 'happy medium' is recommended.  Judge seed by the size of the bulb, rather than each individual clove. Too hugely large and the chance of double cloves increases. Too small and your garlic will be small next year!

Our garlic has been curing in our big pole barn for the past two weeks.  Hanging garlic is much heavier than we imagined - luckily the walls didn't fall down.

Despite it being a surprisingly wet summer, we are lucky that the East Kootenay climate here is very dry.  Garlic can be susceptible to molds if the soil & curing conditions are too damp.  

We have just started harvesting our heritage garlic! Spicy and good storing ''Leningrad" was first off the mark, followed closely by Puslinch and German Red.  The harvest of Susan Delafield, Spanish Roja, Persian Star, Yugoslavian Porcelain and Georgian Fire should occur in the next few days!  It was fairly easy to pull up the garlic by hand, though for a few very large mature bulbs we needed to use a pitch fork or shovel.   After filling our pick up truck with garlic, keeping it well shaded, we transported it to the pole barn and hung them on wire lines along the width of the building.  This provides excellent ventilation, shade and rain protection.   Our hands smell like garlic! Yum!!

Garlic Scape RECIPES

-Many different & delicious ways to cook Scapes:

Grill, roast, broil or saute them in olive oil or butter, as you would asparagus. Use them in omelets, stir fries, and even chopped fine in mashed potatoes, pasta, salads or bread dough.  In the photo above, at Clear Sky's retreat kitchen, we're serving them up grilled, with some olive oil, salt and pepper, along with roasted yams.

- Scape PESTO recipe:

Chop 1 pound of garlic scapes into 3 inch lengths then process in food processor until pureed. Add 1 cup parmesan & 1 cup pine nuts and process until smooth. Slowly add ½ to 1 cup olive oil as the food processor runs and continue until all the oil is combined into the garlic. Add salt to taste. Store in an air-tight jar in the refrigerator & Enjoy!

-Garlic scape PICKLES recipe:

Clear Sky Farm is offering jars of mindfully made pickled garlic scapes for sale from this season's scapes.  Or, you can make your own, using fresh garlic scapes available from us or at most local farmers markets.

Combine 2 litres water with 2 litres natural vinegar.  Add 8 tablespoons of pickling salt, and bring to the boil.  Meanwhile, cut the scapes into whatever size you'd like, (not minced though) and fill clean jars with the garlic scapes.  Once the vinegar, water & salt has come to the boil, fill the scape jars with this liquid.  Add some pickling spices like pepper, dill seed, cayenne if you like.  Finally cover the jars with canning lids and bring them boil , completely covered for 10 minutes.  They'll keep a really long time that way.

Pickling has been used for centuries to preserve food. The above scape pickle recipe is the 'fast' pickling method. There are other lacto-fermented scape pickling recipes that are even healthier and nutritious - fermented full of healthy microbes and more.   I'll post some of those recipes later when I get a chance.

ENJOY!