Are Garlic Bulbils Edible?

18 years ago

I know nothing about raising garlic except what I've read here in the last few days. You folks have shared a wealth of information in your past posts. A sincere THANKS. The one answer I did not find is whether the bulbils are edible. As you will see in the story below, we have so many of them it seems a shame to throw them out.

Last year we purchased a small adjoining farm with an old home site. This week we discovered a large garlic patch in the old barnyard. It has thrived there for many, many years with no attention. (My apologies to all you folks who are working so hard to find the best way to grow garlic).

We found this patch at about the right time and harvested what will probably amount to about a peck of bulbs (heads I believe they are called). They range from one inch to 2-3 inches. The "Scapes" were never removed and the "Spathes" (learned those words on your forum too) have grown to about an inch diameter.

Based on what I've read here, this is probably the hard neck variety but I haven't a clue beyond that. Our son has already used some of the cloves. He says it is potent and delicious. Far superior to any store-bought he has ever found.

The way the patch has spread over a fairly large area I assume it is propagating both from the heads and the spathes. Some of the smaller plants are as much as fifty feet from the larger, and I assume original patch.

Featured Answer

gallaure

17 years ago

I just found a fantastic reference on Google books! the page refers to drying bulbils, then crushing them with a rolling pin and dumping the flakes on stuff... YUM!

Here is a link that might be useful: Page of Book...

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Comments (8)

bloosquall
18 years ago
Peel the bulbils and put them in a green salad or bake them on a pork chop. Yes, they're very edible. I like my garlic raw, fresh harneck bulbils are a treat.
cedarlake
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks bloosquall. Between the heads and the bulbils we'll have enough to supply the whole community. If I eat one of those bulbils and get sick I'm going to call my lawyer and... naw just kidding!

You have a nice web site. Man. You're serious about garlic. I love the flutter-bys. I lifted the java code from your page. Going to look at it later and see if I can use it with other images.
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lilacs_of_may
18 years ago
Oh, I so envy you! I'm one of those trying desperately to get big, healthy garlic bulbs, and you just happen onto a huge patch. The bulbils are just tiny garlic cloves, so yes they're edible. So are the garlic scapes. I like to slice them and steam them lightly with other vegetables, like broccoli and carrots.
bloosquall
18 years ago
Ceder, I see you're from TN... I'll type slower. oh my god..too funny.

Try chopping them in half and lightly cook them with scrambled eggs. You say you pinched some of my code off my page...shame on you. I'm having my bulbs professionally photographed for said site, I should have them posted in a couple weeks. maybe I can add one here, nope can't figure out how to do it.
cedarlake
Original Author
18 years ago
Bloosquall:
Glad to get the scrambled egg idea. I might even be able to cook that without involving the wife.

I'll look forward to seeing the pictures. That would help me identify the type of garlic we have. I participate in a couple wood turning forums and we easily post pictures several ways, but after a quick glance around this forum it's not obvious that you can post them here.

As for the Tennessee humor, we can read pretty fast (if the words are small); we just speak slowly. Actually I've spent a lot of time living elsewhere (NJ/NY, AZ, VA, KY) so I'm really "multi-accented". I spent my formative teenage years in the Navy. That does something to one's accent and vocabulary.
cedarlake
Original Author
17 years ago
Jenna. You posted a message to my web site but did not leave your email address. I will be glad to give you some garlic for planting if you will give me the contact information.
Chuck Jones
gallaure
17 years ago
Jenna here...

Weird. I put it in last time!

I've re-submitted. Thanks!