I suppose this rightly belongs in the gardening thread, but it has definite application to cooking as well. I’m a firm believer that every good cook should have their own “kitchen garden” out the back door.
Today I walked out of my garden with a bucket full of garlic bulbs, greens still attached. After a few days of drying, my year supply of garlic will be ready to store in a dark, dry place.
Growing garlic is ridiculously simple. Break up a head of garlic in late September and bury each clove “root end” down, about three fingers deep and about 8 inches from its nearest neighbor.
Keep the weeds in check (I cover mine with dead leaves for the winter) and they should be ready to dig up in July, when their leaf tips turn brown. That’s all there is to it. A six-foot stretch of border garden should yield about 30 to 50 heads of garlic. Enjoy!
We never bought garlic, because my father-in-law always grew his own, and gifted us with a bunch of it every year. We miss it, now that he’s gone, and it’s one of the things we want to grow when we retire to a home with a garden.
-JT