Eating garlic greens
AAaron123
We do not let them develop seeds at the top of the stems that develop (cut
stems off).
But somehow new garlic plants show up in the garden.
Some surprisingly far from the planted ones.
Don't know where the seeds come from or how these plants get started.
No one near us also plants garlic.
So we have these garlic's growing that we do not need and I had heard that
the greens can be cut up and cooked with eggs.
Has anyone heard of that?
What I was wondering was: do people include a lot of greens or is just that
they add a small amount for seasoning.
Or maybe I misunderstood and they use the cloves (not using the greens at
all.)
Or maybe there is another use for the greens.
Thanks
Gary Woods
>
>Don't know where the seeds come from or how these plants get started.
>No one near us also plants garlic.
>
>So we have these garlic's growing that we do not need and I had heard that
>the greens can be cut up and cooked with eggs.
First, garlic usually doesn't grow from seeds*. But the little bulbils on
top of the scape sure do. If you manage to find them all, you're a better
gardener than I! And I always manage to miss a few bulbs at harvest, or
leave a broken off clove about, so there are always a few garlic plants
where last year's grew.
But to get round to your question, garlic greens are just fine in
stir-frys, chopped up in eggs, or whatever suits your fancy. I know a
commercial grower who has a nice secondary marked in garlic greens... he
just throws the leftover cloves that were too small to plant willy-nilly in
a bed to produce greens, usually several cuttings before they run out of
energy. A nearby Asian market is happy to get them!
Those scapes make nice pesto; I freeze a bunch in plastic ice cube trays,
then bag the frozen cubes for future use.
Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G
Gary Woods
>First, garlic usually doesn't grow from seeds*.
*But you probably knew that.
(Sorry I forgot this at the end of my previous post)
jellybean stonerfish
>>First, garlic usually doesn't grow from seeds*.
>
>
> *But you probably knew that.
>
> (Sorry I forgot this at the end of my previous post)
>
>
I didn't know that. I always grow my garlic from gloves. The ones I
saved from before, or more from any random source. I thought that
farmers would do seed because I thought it would be cheaper. After
seeing your post I put "garlic seeds" though google and now I don't know
what to think.
stonerfish
Gary Woods
>After
>seeing your post I put "garlic seeds" though google and now I don't know
>what to think.
The short version:
Garlic gave up sex long ago, and doesn't produce true seeds, so what you're
doing in planting cloves is how garlic reproduces. Hardneck garlic puts up
scapes with a bunch of "bulbils" on top, usually at some cost to the main
bulb, which is why we cut them off. You can let the scapes go and plant
the little bulbils, but it will take more than a season to get full-sized
garlic bulbs. Growers sometimes to this to avoid soil-borne diseases if
this is an issue with the original stock.
There has been a lot of research the past few years, and garlic can be
persuaded to produce true seeds... more of interest for producing hybrids
and other genetic tinkering; I don't know (or especially care to) the
details.
Shameless plug: google "garlic seed foundation." They're good folks.
Oh yeah: Asian cooks are often happy to get garlic scapes for cooking.
Cut them before they start to curl to keep as much energy as possible in
the main bulb, as well as to have nice tender stems to stir fry or make
pesto.
Pat Kiewicz
>But to get round to your question, garlic greens are just fine in
>stir-frys, chopped up in eggs, or whatever suits your fancy. I know a
>commercial grower who has a nice secondary marked in garlic greens... he
>just throws the leftover cloves that were too small to plant willy-nilly in
>a bed to produce greens, usually several cuttings before they run out of
>energy. A nearby Asian market is happy to get them!
Ooh, I'm going for dim-sum for lunch later today. I always get some
garlic green dumplings to take home to reheat for later. Have to
pack them separately from anything else I take home, and it's best
to bring an air-tight container from home to keep them from reeking
into the car interior. (The waitress laughed when we first brought
out our container, but agreed that, "Yes, they stink, but are SO GOOD."
--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)
After enlightenment, the laundry.
Billy
> On Fri, 09 May 2008 11:40:50 -0400, Gary Woods
> <garyu...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>
> >But to get round to your question, garlic greens are just fine in
> >stir-frys, chopped up in eggs, or whatever suits your fancy. I know a
> >commercial grower who has a nice secondary marked in garlic greens... he
> >just throws the leftover cloves that were too small to plant willy-nilly in
> >a bed to produce greens, usually several cuttings before they run out of
> >energy. A nearby Asian market is happy to get them!
>
> Hey Gary,
>
> Is it normal for some of the outer, oldest leaves to be turning
> yellowish? This spring is cooler than normal. It was planted at the
> right time, mulched, compost applied this spring and fertilized with
> fish fert and remulched. Plenty of moisture, actually lots of rain.
> Am I missing some nutrient? Or underfertilized?
>
> I read about the garlic scallions and did just that with the leftover
> small bulbs. Everyone is loving them in stir-fry and salads.
>
> Thanks
> Charlie
Maybe too much water? I had trouble with my germination trays. Once I
got my seedlings sprouted, I'd put them out sidein the sunshine. Problem
is that the tray I had inside the house on the heating pad and under the
lights, didn't have drain holes.That's good for inside but not that
great for outside. I figured I could always tip out the excess water but
I kept having standing water in the trays and leaves would start turning
yellow, then brown, and then I would have a dead, withered seedling.
Grrrr
Took my knife and made appropriate drain holes and left two trays for
in-door germination.
The overly wet and stunted plants respond quickly when I re-pot them
into six packs and potting soil. That was the other thing, the sphagnum
moss in the germinating soil really holds the water, which exacerbated
my wet tray problem. I have more transfers to do today. I lost some
borage due to my negligence.
We be getting sunshine and temps in the high 60's and low 70's and a
steady 10 to 15 mph wind, mornings and evenings. The garden is
responding a little bit. The cabbage has survived the slugs and snails
but it is in a border area that doesn't get much direct Sun. Putting in
some hyssop today, hoping that will help somehow. Eight tomato plants
are in (3 cherry) but even under the plastic the soil is barely 70F.
The squash looks good but not much growth from it yet.
I've got two small (8'X4' & 5'X4') partial Sun areas that I'm developing
and a couple of small spots where I'm just shoehorning things into.
I'm trimming the time, and number of emitters on my drip irrigation
because we are headed for another summer of water restrictions. I'm
putting in at least one crop of sweet corn and hoping for several more.
I'm also putting in a stand of dent corn as well, for it's ornamental
value as much as for the carbs.
Had to go get a dozen lettuce plants from the nursery because the wet
trays slowed down the new batch of lettuce. That and the lettuce tray
was at the base of an oak, where a squirrel played "52 pickup" with it.
Not much damage, but it didn't help. The potatoes are up and I'm lacing
their soil constantly with sphagnum moss and sulfur powder to drop the
pH. They are just next to my anemic looking blue berries, so the soil
adjustment is a twofer.
The local CSA that we bought into reminded us of how good fresh leeks
could be. We just slow sautee them in a thick bottomed skillet until
they are very soft. They don't need any sauce. Anywho, I'm waiting on
about 40 leeks to mature a little more before I stick them in the
ground, somewhere(?).
Man, all this stuff takes time.
On the bright side, the "Hounds from Hell" have been leaving the
garden in peace. The border collie's (Beau) favorite scratching area is
the beet garden. I know. I know. The season is young.
--
Billy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTfcAyYGg&ref=patrick.net
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0aEo59c7zU&feature=related
AAaron123
"Gary Woods" <garyu...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:utv824l7lqmaag86a...@4ax.com...
AAaron123
Sounds like the softneck garlic keeps better and (I'm not sure about this)
does not have scapes.
What I grow has scapes and I wonder if I should get some new Silverskin
softneck garlic.
Comments anyone?
Pat Kiewicz
I grow both types. My softneck variety is (probably mostly) "Polish
Softneck" and my hardneck variety is (probably mostly) "Music."
"Probably mostly" as I have had other varieties before but I am pretty
sure these two have been the winners in the long run for producing
consistantly large, quality heads. (I'm not quite up to selecting garlic
for subtle differences in flavor; as long as it's not wimpy it's OK by me.)
My "seed stock" was originally from Territorial Seeds:
http://www.territorialseed.com/prod_detail_list/6
AAaron123
I wonder which keeps better.
Do you know?
I'm pretty sure we grow hard stem. The wrappings around the outside of the
bulb is thin and often split so they are not as nice looking as what the
stores sell. Is that typical of hard stem varieties?
Thanks
"Pat Kiewicz" <kie...@someplace.net.net> wrote in message
news:20080517-1...@Pat-Kiewicz.newsgroups.comcast.net...
Gary Woods
>I'm pretty sure we grow hard stem. The wrappings around the outside of the
>bulb is thin and often split so they are not as nice looking as what the
>stores sell. Is that typical of hard stem varieties?
That's a result of digging too late; you want to harvest when about half
the top has turned brown.
I store garlic in a cellar pantry which is fairly cool; some of mine from
last year is still OK, though much has withered.
My favorite is German White, a hardneck with only 3-4 cloves per large
bulb, and strong flavor.
AAaron123
Pat Kiewicz
>
Yeesh! I was in the process of responding when my news server went down
for a couple of days! So anyway, as I was planning to say then...
>We store our garlic during the winter in the garage (central NY) zone 4 and
>I wonder which keeps better.
>
My softnecks last longer in admittedly less than ideal storage (too warm).
The hardnecks are much more likely to shrivel and/or develop brown spots.
So I use the hardnecks first.
>
>I'm pretty sure we grow hard stem. The wrappings around the outside of the
>bulb is thin and often split so they are not as nice looking as what the
>stores sell. Is that typical of hard stem varieties?
As Gary Woods explained, you are not harvesting them at the proper time.
There must still be some green leaves when you pull them in order to
have nice, tight wrapper layers.
But even knowing that, the softnecks I grow seem to be "better wrapped"
and more completely wrapped, without a "neck" sticking out.
AAaron123
"Pat Kiewicz" <kie...@someplace.net.net> wrote in message
news:20080520-0...@Pat-Kiewicz.newsgroups.comcast.net...