Garlic, the Breath of Life

Dawn this morning, the autumnal equinox, showed up as glistening frost on the picnic table. Written in the frost was the reminder that the time to plant garlic is close, maybe closer than not, considering this year’s chilly weather.

A friend, who grows many varieties of garlic to pass on to other gardeners, collected 16 varieties from her garden to give to me to grow. Two pounds of carefully labeled bulbs to be sorted and divided, await planting.

In a conversation with a curious garlic buyer at the Madison Farm to Fork Farmers’ Market as he shuffled through the many varieties of Virginia City-grown garlic offered, asked, “What’s the difference between all this garlic?”

Most folks who use garlic for cooking are familiar with the large white bulbs in the grocery store, most likely imported from China, but unfamiliar with the rest of 600 varieties to be discovered being grown by gardeners and commercial growers. Where and how did garlic diversity originate?

Found growing wild in Central Asia centuries ago, garlic quickly spread with trade around the world to be used for cooking and health reasons. It wasn’t until the 1980s that anyone explored the dusty isolated hills of the homeland of garlic to find the rich genetic diversity of the plants growing in Uzbekistan.

In 1989, John F. Swenson, an avid allium collector from Illinois, was part of an expedition to explore Central Asia to find botanical varieties of garlic to be brought back to the US. He and a few others have done their part to multiply new and unusual varieties to be distributed commercially to garlic lovers everywhere.

Dipping into the pungent world of garlic varieties is like leafing through a world atlas on steroids. For instance, my selection includes: Siberian Hardneck, Polish Softneck, French Mild, Inchellium Red, Spanish Roja, German Extra Hardy, Vekak Czek, Rosewood, Chesnok Red, and Chinese Pink, to name half. Represented are hard necks, soft necks, mild, medium, and strong flavored, spotted, marbled, colored, Porcelain, Silverskin, Rocambole, and Artichoke varieties. Inchellium Red, has a robust flavor, not too mild, not too strong. Or, Spanish Roja, an heirloom Rocambole, has a strong, hot, spicy flavor and grows vigorously with lots of foliage. You begin to see how vast and deep the love of garlic can be.

My two-pound sack of locally-grown garlic, a treasure for sure, sits next to the digging fork waiting for the growing bed to be prepared. I will dig out quack grass, throw in a bit of Whitehall compost, sprinkle seaweed powder, rock phosphate and a handful of alfalfa pellets.

The bed will age for a week or so, then the garlic cloves will be planted 4-6 inches deep, covered with 6 inches of straw. Last, chicken wire will be laid on top to hold the layers through the winter winds. Water will encourage root growth before winter temps drop. And then I’ll wait.

Through the winter, garlic dreams will nudge me to check the growing bed for wind erosion. Come spring, tiny green shoots will lift my spirits to the promise of bulbs around the corner. My love of garlic holds boundless interest in its history, diversity and flavors. Growing garlic makes a Montana winter tolerable. Just knowing that a plant can thrive in snow, cold and darkness to sprout fresh in spring is no less than inspirational.