Italian Late
- Excellent strong garlic grows well all over the country, even in warm winter areas.
- Harvests in early summer - stores into mid-winter.
- Know for sure where your food comes from - buy direct from our growers below and save.
This braidable Italian artichoke can get quite large with good growing conditions and plenty of water. Italian Late has more purple in the bulb wrappers than one usually sees in an artichoke and the semi-thick wrappers peel easily away revealing large cloves with elongated tips a hint of purple. It harvests in early-mid summer and stores into mid-winter or longer. It averages seven to nine large fat cloves in three clove layers and usually has no small internal cloves.
It ranks 5-6 on the garlickiness scale and 8 on the pungency side. It has a semi-rich flavor and a lot of bite that just increases with age and it stores well for 6-8 months.
Most Italian garlics tend to be somewhat mild, but this one, like Lorz, is different. Depending on growing conditions, it can be very hot and strong.
At first, it doesn't seem to have any aftertaste at all - then in a few minutes it begins to grow and becomes very noticeable and builds to a peak in about thirty minutes. If you like garlic with a bold flavor that really sticks around, this is for you. In years where the taste is milder due to growing conditions, the aftertaste is still present, even though the initial taste is milder.
