Elephant Garlic
I thought that I would try Elephant Garlic this year. I found a farm on Ebay that sells "rounds" or Garlic. These are huge bulbs, or single cloves, that haven't split into individual cloves.
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| Elephant Garlic "Rounds" |
They need to be planted before Christmas but anytime from October onward, ie now. In the photo there is one normal garlic on the right which, before it dried out, was what I thought of as a large garlic. The 10 rounds weighed 1kg!
I'm going to plant a couple in the poly-tunnel and the rest outside so I can compare what would be the best place for them should I grow them in future years.
Being bigger, milder, they should be better for roasting and a lot less hassle peeling loads of small normal cloves.
I have also just read that they aren't a true garlic but a stem leek and having never tried them before I'll be very interested in how they taste. We eat a lot of garlic plus I think these may sell well on the market stall, since they are different and I haven't seen them for sale in local super markets.
I think you're right that thry're a subspecies of leek. There's something fun about enormous vegetables - I'm sure they'll attract attention on your stall.
ReplyDeleteIf they're anything like garlic they might benefit from the cooler outside temperatures before growing in the spring.