Garlic of the Day - California Early

Todays Garlic of the day is .... the California Early !
This one of the two Gilroy cultivars is the one you're least likely to find in the local supermarkets because it is processed into dried and pickled and otherwise processed garlic products. California Early is a little bigger and sweeter than California Late, which is definitely on the hot side. Cal Early is said to be very early maturing but it seems to be more of a mid-artichoke-season garlic for us, though it is a prolific grower and a good commercial garlic. It does seem to tolerate our hot spring weather well and stores well also.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much better our Cal Early garlic was than the ones we bought in the stores. The difference our healthy soil and careful handling makes is phenomenal.When grown and harvested properly, Cal Early is an excellent all- around general use garlic and a wonderful baker.

It ranks 4-5 on the garlickiness scale and 3-4 on the pungency side. It has a semi-rich flavor and a little bite, but is still on the light side.

It's a very good growers garlic as it has many large cloves (even the innermost cloves are of good size) and it stores well under proper conditions. The Gilroy growers knew good garlic when they saw it, it was their agricultural practices and resulting soil conditions that made the difference.

 

Garlic of the Day - Paw Paw Garlic

Todays Garlic of the day is ...... The Paw Paw Garlic 

The rich, mellow Rocambole hardneck Garlic of the Midwest.

Rocamboles grow better in cold winter gardens.

Harvests in early summer - stores through fall into winter.

Paw Paw is rare because it is a full flavored mellow Rocambole with little or no hotness to the taste - excellent for Pesto.

Paw Paw is a generally good sized and can be a rather large garlic. Its flavor is rich and mellow like shallots but almost buttery and not hot or spicy and a warm pleasant aftertaste sticks around for a while. A very enriching taste experience and not one to burn your tongue.

From a grower's perspective, it grows well in cold winter areas and usually grows healthy surprisingly uniform sized bulbs. It has thick bulb wrappers for a rocambole and they have a lot of purple and brown layered across a white background - very attractive.

Paw Paw usually has anywhere from 8 or 9 easy to peel cloves that are of good size, with no smaller inner cloves. The outer bulb wrappers are thin and flake off easily so it is not a very good storer, but no Rocambole is. For those up north who want to grow their own garlic, it is said to grow well in wet conditions. It only takes a year or two to grow all you can eat. It harvests in early mid-season (Julyish) along with most of the other Rocamboles. Bulbs are usually over 2 1/2 inches in diameter and are of good size are grown primarily for their rich flavor and good growing characteristics.

Garlic of the Day - Chesnok Red

todays Garlic of the day is ...... The Chesnok Red
Chesnok Red is yet another one of the garlics from the Republic of Georgia in the former USSR. Chesnok is a standard Purple Stripe and has the typical heavy purple striping that gives this variety its name. They have about as much purple as Rocamboles but the background color of the bulb wrappers is much more whitish, making for a very attractive appearance. Chesnok Red can become a rather large garlic with excellent growing conditions.

The outer bulb wrappers are a little thin & loose, but the more you peel away, the thicker and tighter they get (makes the bulb wrappers easy to peel). Once the cloves are revealed, they are seen to be large and with long thin points and are all milky white with cranberry-colored streaks up the outsides of the cloves whike the edges between the cloves are nearly solid cranberry and the elongated tips rather tannish. Large bulbs will have about a dozen cloves and even the inner ones are of good size. They can run an inch or two up the central scape (false stem) and are not only attractive but make the cloves easy to peel.

They have fewer but larger cloves (average of 8 to 10) arranged in a rather circular pattern. Although large bulbs will have about a dozen cloves and even the inner ones are of good size.

Chesnok Red is a full flavored garlic with a mellow aftertaste that sticks around nicely for a while. Best baking garlic and a great all-around garlic. Some years it can be hotter or milder than usual, but it is always fully garlicky.

Chesnok Red is the sweetest roasting garlic of them all; It doesn't just taste not garlicky, it actually tastes sweet. Garlic ice cream made with roasted Chesnok Red has the taste and crunchiness of butter brickle ice cream - try it, it's fabulous