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.