Italian Purple/Purple Italian (Rocambole)
- A rich, musky but mellow Rocambole hardneck Garlic.
- Order now direct from our growers below and save.
- Also called Italian Easy Peel.
- Rocamboles grow better in cold winter gardens.
- Harvests in early summer - stores through fall into winter.
Italian Purple is rare because it is an Italian rocambole that was brought to the USA from Italy around a hundred years ago and has been grown all over Northern states ever since. It is thought to have come from northern Italy since it is a rocambole that probably won't grow well in southern Italy. Most other Italian garlics are artichokes and a few silverskins. When is the last time you remember an Italian rocambole?
Italian Purple is a generally good sized and can be a rather large garlic. Being a Rocambole garlic, its flavor is rich and strong, but not overly hot and spicy and sticks around for a while. A very enriching taste experience but not one to burn your tongue (at least not until the garlic is a little too mature). From a grower's perspective, it grows well in cold winter areas and usually grows healthy surprisingly uniform sized bulbs. It has thick bulb wrappers for a rocambole and they have a lot of purple and brown layered across a white background - very attractive.
Italian Purple usually has anywhere from 8 or 9 easy to peel cloves that are of good size, with no smaller inner cloves. The outer bulb wrappers are thin and flake off easily so it is not a very good storer, but no Rocambole is. For those up north who want to grow their own garlic, it is said to grow well in wet conditions. It only takes a year or two to grow all you can eat. It harvests in mid-season along with most of the other Rocamboles. Bulbs are usually over 2 1/2 inches in diameter and are of good size are grown primarily for their rich flavor and good growing characteristics.
NOTE: None of the growers in our farmers market currently have this cultivar for sale.