Burgundy

Harvests early summer - stores through winter into mid-spring

A richly flavorful with mellow pungency Creole garlic.

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. Botanists once thought Creoles were a branch of Silverskins but It was hard to believe Creoles were Silverskins as they don't resemble any Silverskins in any way. Botanists assured us; however, that they were genetically Silverskins, but the latest DNA studies show 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 colored 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.) 

The size all Creole garlics grow to depends on where they grow as they require as much direct overhead sunlight as they can get.  Most of them have grown in the Caribbean area the last 500 years and they get real big when grown down South but rather small when grown in the north because they cannot get the intense sunlight they need.

You might want to buy a handful of these garlics even if you hate garlic; they make a fabulous centerpiece for the festive table.