Answers to Frequently Asked Questions Is there more than one kind of garlic?-- Yes, there are hundreds of local garlics from all over the world and they all derive from the 10 basic kinds that fall into eight types of Hardnecks and two types of softneck garlics. For more details please see the Overview of Garlic page of this website. Back to Questions Does all garlic taste the same?-- No, some are very mild and some are very hot and strong and there is every taste level in between. For more details please see the Varieties page of this website and click on the name of any garlic and get a description and picture of it. Back to Questions Does cooked garlic have the same benefits as raw garlic?-- As near as I can figure out, you lose very little in cooking it. The first thing you would lose would be the allicin and its antibiotic properties. Heat breaks it down rather quickly, as do digestive chemicals. What it breaks down into; however, is a soup of sulphur compounds that are antibiotic also. Most of the health benefits from garlic come from the breakdown compounds, rather than allicin itself, anyway, as allicin breaks down in the body and it is the breakdown components that get into the bloodstream. They're the ones that really do most of the good. Even Kyolic Aged Garlic Extract, which has been soaked in alcohol and other chemicals for nearly two years still has anticoagulant effects as well as some other benefits, and it has no allicin left in it at all. Fresh garlic is better all the way around, cooked or raw. Cooked garlic would seem to have less immediate antibiotic value. Doctors have indicated that the smellier the garlic, the better it works, as the smelly compounds seem to do the most work. Some of the helpful compounds are probably destroyed during the cooking process and dissipate in the form of cooking odors. On the plus side, you can eat a lot more cooked garlic than you can raw garlic, at least most people can. I usually eat a clove or two raw with cooked meals, anyway. I suspect that you do lose a little with cooking, but are able to make up for it by being able to eat more of it. For a more complete discussion check out the Health Benefits page of oue website. Back to Questions Is raw garlic or garlic that has sprouted toxic?-- Good question. It may depend on how you define "toxic" and on whether there are any discernable symptoms. I have eaten MANY sprouted garlics during the winter and spring as garlic sprouts to try to grow. I have eaten them raw (a lot raw), cooked in every way I can think of and pickled, too - I eat several pickled garlic with a sandwich for lunch sometimes. I often pickle sprouted garlic because the sprouts make a nice little handle. No one I know of has suffered any ill effects that they have told me about, so I am of a mindset that sees it as safe. At least for me and those in my experience. The bulk of research recognizes Allicin as the prime source of all the breakdown products that result in so many health benefits. Allicin itself is a potent, if transient, antibiotic. Only two sources that I am aware of consider Allicin to be toxic, neither of them seem to define the toxicity very well and both of them are involved in the development or manufacture of garlic breakdown products. One is the maker of Kyolic aged garlic extract (that has no allicin content and advertises that as its advantage) and the other is the discoverer of Ajoene, a distilled garlic product. Manufacturers of garlic pills take pride in the levels of Allicin they claim in their products and advertise that as their advantage. On the Links page of our website, there is a link to Dr. Eric Block - check out what he has to say. He says raw garlic is toxic, but makes no statement about bitter garlic. His opinion is respected, but widely contested. It's hard to know who to believe. Garlic is in a constant state of change from the moment it divides from its parent clove, goes through the growing stage, is harvested, dries down and waits for fall to begin to sprout roots and a green monocotyledon (shoot). In addition to the things you can see like color changes in the bulb wrappers and size increase up until harvest and drydown, then size decrease and weight loss, there are also chemical changes inside the cloves. When garlic is first harvested it is as mild as it will be. Thereafter it slowly gains strength in flavor and pungency until it reaches a crescendo when it puts out sprouts. At that point it is called bitter garlic by growers and does have a whang to the taste. That is probably the toxicity being referred to. I do not know what The chemistry of a typical clove would be at that time, but it seems obvious that it is considerably different than it was earlier in the season. The garlic seems to be converting its substance to things it can use to grow and develop, that is, grow (manufacture) roots and foliage. The chemistry of garlic is not a static thing but a dynamic thing since we are dealing with a living creature that is metabolizing, not just a bunch of lab chemicals in bottles. If you did chemical analysis tests on garlic every week from the time of harvest to the time of sprouting, you would most likely get different readings each time. Garlic is a dynamic thing that defies absolute quantification. You can arrest the changes by processing the garlic at any point in its development when the chemical balance is favorable to what you want to do. Your question points out the need to do more basic research on garlic. Back to Questions How can I dry garlic at home?-- The best way is to peel the cloves (tight clove covers? Soak them for an hour or more in water - they'll slip right off) then cut the cloves into 1/4th inch thick slices. Lay these slices out to dry on a perforated surface such as 1/4 inch hardware cloth or screen. If using a dehydrator, use the lowest temperature setting. For a lot more information about how to preserve garlic in many ways, Click here to go to our Preserving Garlic page. Back to Questions What is round or ball garlic?-- What you seem to have gotten are garlic rounds. As garlic goes through the development underground from a clove to a fully cloved bulb, it first swells into a large round undivided ball with a lot of wrappers that are almost fused together. As it grows, it begins to divide and sub-divide into as many cloves as it can before the heat causes it to lose its leaves. If the temperature increases before the garlic has time to divide, then the result is a large undivided round. Every time we harvest we find some of them. If replanted as is in the fall, they will form large fully divided bulbs the following spring. These rounds have the same taste and other properties as the clove they came from. Mild tasting garlics yield mild tasting rounds and strong garlics result in strong tasting rounds. For spring planting, rounds are your best bet to produce a good size bulb by the time early summer heat forces maturity. From a cook's standpoint, one large cloves means a lot less peeling, etc. Also, they seem to keep much longer than fully developed garlic, probably due to that heavy, thick wrapper they have. Back to Questions What is that garlic that looks like green onions? Is it all edible-- What you have is green garlic, a delightful harbinger of spring to bring fresh young garlic flavor so delicately to the fortunate palate of one so lucky as to find these special treats. Yes, the entire plant can be eaten, though the roots would be a bit stringy and should be trimmed off. Growers often cull out small plants that lag the others and would result in small garlic and sell them as green garlic, much in the way the onion grower sells green onions. They're generally only available in the spring and not very widely marketed, most people have never tried them. Slices of green garlic light up a cheese omelette and can also give a heady lift to new potato soup. Try them in stews or stir-fry for a special treat. Green garlic is very mild but still has a marvelous essence of garlic that is uplifting. They're also excellent eaten raw as an adjunct to a sandwich or a bowl of soup. Back to Questions How long should garlic store?-- Some varieties naturally store longer than others, but most should be able to store at ordinary room temperature for at least six months after it comes out of the ground is not unreasonable. Early harvesting varieties seem to store less long than the later maturing varieties, but it's just that they've been out of the ground longer. Rocamboles are the shortest storing garlics, typically 5-6 months. Silverskins, like Locati and Rose du Var store 8 to 10 months, and Creole Silverskins like Burgundy and Ajo Rojo store 8-9 months. Purple Stripes like Metechi and Chesnok Red store 7-8 months. If garlic has been stored in refrigeration, it will have a very short storage life after it comes out of the fridge. Most grocery store garlic has been stored under refrigeration for weeks or months before being put on the shelf and as a result, deteriorates within weeks. For more details, please read Storing Garlic in the Growing Tips page of our website. Back to Questions How should garlic be stored?-- I think unglazed terra cotta works best. Those little garlic keepers are excellent for just a few bulbs. You could also use terra cotta flower pots. Or, you could store garlic in an open brown paper bag or a paper fiber egg carton or a cardboard box - allow for air circulation and keep it out of direct sunlight as that will dry it out faster. Net bags work very well as long as there's not so much garlic in them as to impair air circulation. DO NOT STORE GARLIC IN PLASTIC OR ANY AIRTIGHT CONTAINER. I don't recommend storing garlic in the refrigerator because the humidity can induce fungal and bacterial problems and the low temperature can cause early sprouting. For more details, check out Storing Garlic in our Growing Garlic webpage. Back to Questions Can you plant garlic in the spring?-- Yes it can, but it seldom gives as good results as fall-planted garlic because it does not have enough time to develop fully and may result in small bulbs or undivided rounds ( see question on round or ball garlic. For more details please see the Growing Tips page of this website. Back to Questions Do all garlics mature and harvest at the same time?-- No. It is usually 6 to 8 weeks from the time the earliest variety (Turban or Asiatic Artichokes - such as Chinese Purple or Asian Rose) isss harvested until the time the last variety (Silverskins, like Rose du Var or Locati) is taken out of the ground. Most garlics harvest somewhere in mid season. The larger they are, the longer it takes them to cure, that is, dry down. Back to Questions How do you know when garlic is ready to harvest?-- Not all varieties harvest at the same time, there's about a 6 or 8 week span between the time the earliest garlics are ready (Asiatic and Turban artichokes) and the time the last ones are mature (silverskins). Wait for the leaves to begin dying down - they die down from the bottom of the plant first and then proceed to die down towards the top. When the top 6-7 leaves are the only ones still green and they're starting to look a little past their prime, that's the time to pull them. It is the heat that forces garlic to mature and we usually begin our harvest here in early to mid May and it extends into early to mid July. I would imagine your harvest would begin a month or two later than ours. By early May, we're already into the 80's and 90's. If the temperature gets too high and stays there too long early in the year, then some of the garlic may form round, undivided balls, which can be eaten or replanted the following fall to form fully segmented bulbs the following summer. If you are foliar feeding, it is best to stop when the garlic begins to form bulbs and to withhold water during the last 10 days before harvest, weather permitting. Back to Questions I would like to grow some garlic commercially, what do you suggest?-- Not all garlics do equally well in all places and growing conditions. Some will do better than others for you. There's no point in trying to grow a variety that will not thrive for you. Also, weather makes a difference in how any given crop will turn out. A garlic that thrives one year may do poorly the next if it is unusually warm or cold. You might think about growing several different kinds to see which ones consistently do well for you. We have grown over 50 kinds to find those that do well for us and we are always adding new ones to try and dropping out others that don't excell for us. I would suggest starting with an assortment of different kinds of garlic with different properties to see which ones do well for you in your environment. You might get some that are early maturing, some that are mid-season and some that mature late (unless you want them all to mature at once). You might also want to get some that are mild, some that are medium flavored and some that are strong. Also, you might want some that store a lot longer than others so that you will still have garlic into the spring, after most other garlic has deteriorated. I also suggest that you start on a little smaller scale than you will eventually grow to in order to develop routines and refine techniques that you will use later. There's a surprising amount of work that may not seem obvious at first. It is also easier to recover from a mistake if you start small and grow as you learn. It would also be a very good idea to develop your market early on and know pretty much where or how you will sell your produce. We now have an online farmers market where growers can sell their garlic direct to the public. Click here to learn more about how you can participate. How do you grow garlic so it gets real big?-- As near as I can tell, it takes six things to grow extra large garlics; early planting, proper spacing between plants, the right varieties, the right soil conditions and the right weather and late harvesting. I don't know of any webpage that discusses it in detail. Some varieties are inherently capable of growing larger due to their genetics, but even so, the conditions must be right. For us, the ones which consistently grow the largest are Simoneti, Metechi, Siberian, Inchelium Red, Chinese Purple and Chinese Sativum (also called Asian Rose). Of course, you could also grow elephant garlic (not a true garlic) if you just want size, because it's the biggest of all - I've grown the the size of softballs. We give all of these plants extra spacing - about 8" apart, but more would probably be better. I believe that lush garden soil is the best medium for growing large bulbs and that you can't get that with artificial chemicals, only with organics. Thoughtful growers add compost, humus, seaweed, molasses, rock dusts and whatever trace minerals and micronutrients their soil lacks (requires soil testing) to build the best beds possible. There are no shortcuts to true quality. Foliar feeding helps garlic grow big and healthy. The earlier you plant and the longer you leave garlic in the ground, the larger it will get - within its natural limitations. Garlic won't grow until it is ready to so planting much before the first day of fall doesn't seem to help unless summer temps have already cooled off. Garlic will grow while it is cool and when the temperature gets too hot, it stops growing and its leaves die down. It doesn't do any good to leave garlic in the ground after it has matured as that will cause the bulb wrappers to rot away exposing the bulb to predators and disease. A long cool spring is what helps garlic get big; a spring that turns hot early will cause garlic to bolt prematurely. Some varieties inherently mature a month or more before other varieties. Chinese Purple is the earliest variety we have and harvests in early to mid May. The larger the bulb, the longer it takes to dry down (cure) enough to ship in an enclosed container. Click here to learn more about growing gourmet garlic. Back to Questions