In the spring they send up a scape (stalk) that forms a complete double loop. (They're the only garlics that do a double loop.) They have usually seven to nine cloves arranged in circular fashion about a central scape and have few or no smaller internal cloves.

Alas, they do not grow well in warmer climates such as ours. They require a colder winter and a cooler spring than we have here in central Texas. We have tried for years to "southernize" these garlics, but to no avail; they simply die in the ground before getting very big, so we don't yet recommend trying to grow them in warm winter areas. Warm winter denizens can and should buy them to eat because they're great.

We don't even try to grow rocamboles commercially anymore because there are several excellent growers of these wonderful garlics located all across the northern tier of states and we buy from the best organic and sustainable growers we can find. There's no point in our trying to grow these things good enough to sell when there are so many whose climate does so much better. I envy them and I buy from them. To equalize matters somewhat, Creoles don't do well up North and growers up there envy the Creoles we can grow...it all works out. We select the best Rocamboles we can find from Northern growers and sell them to gardeners in cold winter areas and epicures everywhere in the USA.

Their primary drawback, other than being fussy about growing conditions, is that they are among the shortest storing garlics of all, storing 5-6 months from harvest and seldom storing beyond New Years Day. Even though they have a short shelf life, they are excellent for slicing and dehydrating and will store for years once dehydrated and kept dry and the slices can be ground into an excellent garlic powder that is so good, you won't ever want to buy grocery store garlic powder again. Another way to preserve them is to pickle them as they make fabulous pickled garlic that gets better every year for about five years. For more information about preserving garlic: Click here to go to our Preserving Garlic webpage

They more than make up for any of their shortcomings with their flavor.

Did I mention flavor? Their flavor must be experienced to be believed - its depth is remarkable. They have a deep earthy muskiness about them that few other garlics have and they are fiery when eaten raw.

When using your credit/debit card to buy direct from different gardeners, a separate order is required for each gardener. You may buy as many different kinds of garlic as you want from any gardener on any order but each grower requires a separate order. If you want to order garlic from more than one grower, a seperate order must be placed with each gardener.

If you buy from a gardener and later cancel that order, the credit card processing gateway still charges Gourmet Garlic Gardens the full processing fee plus an additional fee for processing the cancellation and also it places an additional clerical burden on us so, regretably, we must charge a 10% cancellation fee when processing the cancellation because that's about what it costs us. My advice is to look around among the various market gardeners and decide what to buy from whom and then place your orders and stick with the gardeners you have chosen.

Some of our growers are Certified Organic and some are Certified Naturally Grown, which we regard as equal to Certified Organic in every meaningful way but without all the bureaucratic rigamarole. All our market gardeners grow organically/sustainably but not all want to be certified and are among the best available sources of sustainable/organic Garlic We do not allow growers who use synthetic petroleum-based fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides or herbacides to participate in our farmers market.