Garlic of the Day, Burgundy Garlic!

 
and todays Garlic of the day is the stunning Burgundy!

 Burgundy is as beautiful a garlic as the name implies. The Creole group may well be the most beautiful of all garlics for more than one reason. It was hard to believe Creoles were silverskins as they don't resemble any other silverskins in any way. Botanists assu"red" us; however, that they were genetically silverskins, but it turns out not to be so. They are in an class all of their own and it shows. If I have a personal favorite garlic, this one is it. I love so many of them it is hard to pick a single one, but I could not leave these beauties off any list of favorites. They look almost too pretty to eat-until you try one, then you realize they're too beautiful not to eat.

The bulb wrappers have a lovely deep rose color to them and the more layers you peel off, the prettier they get. When you finally get down to the cloves, which are arranged in circular fashion around the center, much like rocamboles, the clove covers are almost "red" with delicate burgundy colo"red" vertical streaks. They look more like flowers than garlic and are so perfectly arrayed that you are reluctant to pull off a clove and disturb the symmetry of it all. You almost feel as though you are violating it. But you have to taste test it so you pull off a clove and peel its cover off and take that first bite almost with a feeling of regret and apologizing to it for doing such violence to it. You bite off the upper half of the naked clove and fall in love with it as it tastes every bit as good as it looks. Burgundy has a wonderfully mild, yet full flavor with only moderate heat. In my view, it is one of the best of all garlics for enjoyable raw eating. It is so good that you eagerly rip off another clove and dig in without apology (Once is never enough with a garlic like this.) 

Burgundy is about the size of the average silverskin and stores just as clean and firm almost as long, but not quite. Burgundy tends to grow clean also and seems almost immune to some of the problems that can plague some of the other varieties. That may be because Burgundy grows better in warmer climates than many kinds of garlic. Not all cultivars are well suited to growing in mild winter and warm to hot spring climates but the Creole garlics do very well here in central Texas and other warmer climates. The excellent condition of our original seedstock that we got from Filaree Farms in Washington implies that it does pretty good in the cold areas also. You might want to buy a handful of these garlics even if you hate garlic; they make a fabulous centerpiece for the festive table.