Nice! This is very helpful. We eat so much garlic I'm wondering if I should lean to the easily stored varieties. I need to hurry up and taste test.

bon

We tried Red Toch last night. I was excited by the link below which says this is rich but mellow. Both my husband and I thought it was too hot raw, hotter than the first one. I added it to pasta sauce, but I couldn't tell anything special about it cooked. Apparently heat can vary with the growing conditions and weather, so who knows if it is always that hot (or maybe we are wusses.) This one I found is also sold by Southern Exposure and Burpee.

Here is a link that might be useful: Red Toch

Keep the reviews coming. I really enjoyed your primer too :)

I second that.

Morning.

I spent some time looking over the different varieties of garlic. Having dilapidated memory banks in my noggin, I searched an old thread on the topic of good varieties for Oklahoma. I'll post it here. I like what Jay ads to the knowledge bank.

What Type of Garlic Do You Plant and When?

Lukac was not hot when raw, but tastey, could easily be used in raw recipes. DH said we needed more cooked garlic in the pasta, which may mean it was too mild, or that I should have really used more.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lukac

Just for grins I picked up some purple striped garlic from the grocery store. I did a raw taste test and found it wwoaah so hot and pungent. I'm fermenting my pickles with it. They dont' taste that great, but it's probably seasonings. The garlic is too strong, too. Meh. Learning.

DH made up some salad dressing with the garlic we grew last year. I asked him if he put hot pepper in it. We were both confused until we figured out how hot raw garlic is. I guess we never really had eaten it raw before. Your pickles may taste better after they sit awhile. I don't have a "gourmet" palate. DH is better at picking out flavors. I suppose if you grow different varieties you have to experiment till you find the right amounts for your taste.

Funny story. A friend had made garlic flavored oil. Apparently it was in a normal vegetable oil bottle. Her daughter baked a chocolate cake with it, not knowing it was flavored. You can imagine the reaction. My garlic loving son said he would have eaten it.

Oh my! Your son.... wow. Give that boy a pat on the back.

Chesnok Red: not hot when raw, good flavor raw. Smelled divine while cooking, but also not enough garlic taste in cooked product. The cloves were small, maybe we just needed more.

The description says it is sweet when roasted, and there was a sweetness to the dish we had tonight. It was brussels sprouts sauteed in garlic butter. I think I would like to grow this one.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chesnok Red

Sounds Yummy!

It's time!

Note that Amy mentioned above this lady would have seed garlic for sale. I might hop on over to Tulsa and nab me some to taste.

Lisa nudged me to look atPinetree's sale of garlic.

I know that most people aren't really picky about garlic, but it's a family favorite, integral part of everyday cooking and I'd like to expand. I was disappointed in roasted elephant garlic. It was good, but just didn't have much flavor after roasting. The porcelains from the store don't have a lot of flavor after being roasted, either.

I might try one of the samplers from one of these suppliers via the link Amy posted.

Any suggestions from any of yall's experience before I run off an order garlic?

Do ya'll have a particular type you grow for your tomato-based sauces?

I don't know nuttin' 'cept how to peel 'em and eat 'em.

You just have to try the different varieties and see what your taste buds like. Flavor is highly subjective and each person's taste buds will "interpret" flavor differently, and it just takes time to find flavors your specific taste buds prefer over all others. Try different varieties both raw and roasted to see what appeals to your family's taste buds. There are some varieties I don't like much raw but love roasted. I've noticed we tend to lean towards various reds and purples.

I bought garlic from that lady last year in September. Wish I had the name of the vender. I bought one or two bulbs

of everything she had, which was slightly different from that list. I think I grew some of every thing on that list, plus Red Russian, which made huge cloves and big bulbils. There were others, but at the moment I don't remember the names.

I saved bulbils to plant, it takes a couple of years to get big bulbs from these, but I hope to increase my seed stock with them.

Elaphant garlic is really a shallot, with a very mild garlic flavor.

I can't really tell you about flavor, because we have been eating oddballs, the ones I couldn't identify or whose leaves had all died making them poor choices for storage. The one I cooked with last night, which I think was a softneck had no flavor. This might have been because it was on the edge of sprouting, or maybe they will all be mild from whatever variety that it was. I learned the flavor is stronger if you let them cure a few months. You can eat the bulbils, too, they are just small, most varieties are about the size of a grain of rice.

Purple Glazier is another I planted

Georgian Crystal

BTW, Cherry Street farmers market is open Saturdays 7 to 11 am. Between Peoria and Utica on 15th street. If you want softnecks, there is a guy that sells at the Broken Arrow market, I think it is the Rose district, 418 S Main St, Broken Arrow, OK 74012, Sat 8 - 12

I found garlic last fall at Grogg's Green Barn in Tulsa. German Red, Inchelium Red, Early Italian Purple, and Silver Rose. I don't know much about garlic and haven't used much of what I grew but have been happy so far.

Thanks Bixby and Amy. Thanks for the photos. Your garlic looks great. My garlic patch was pretty much a big ol mess this year, but I dug up what seemed viable. Mostly, it was elephant garlic that survived. Some of the store-bought garlic survived. All of it was deep down and hard to dig up. I am considering a raised bed this fall. Not certain.

We really eat a TON of garlic. Last year I would go outdoors and shove store-bought bulbs in all the time. I'll probably continue. especially since you mention months-curing time. That might be why mine didn't have much flavor.

I'm getting soil ready, but I don't think I'll be planting until late October to mid November, depending on the weather.