In the Garden: Of Garlic and Shallots

It is in the middle of October that we plant our garlic and shallots which is true for most all of the North American colonies.

Garlic has a long usage as a medicinal plant but was seldom used in America as a culinary spice until relatively recently.

As late as 1851 Peter Adams Schenck wrote of garlic in America, “among all classes of society in the southern parts of Europe, it enters into the composition of nearly every dish for the table. In England and the United States, however, it is by no means a favorite, as its strong, nauseating smell is repulsive to our more refined taste.”

Nonetheless, the English are well aware the oft repeated wisdom that a diet heavy in garlic leads to longer life. Stephen Switzer averred, in 1727, “A gentleman, a neighbor too…arrived to near an hundred and twenty years of age, without any other physic, or extraordinary diet, than that of roasted garlick.”

However, he goes on to caution, “Those who eat ought as it were to exclude and divest themselves from the world, and all human society, as least for a time.”

We grow two forms of garlic.

The German Red is a hardneck form which is the most ancient variety of this pungent bulb and the best suited for northern climes. It is also the type that produces the unusual, twisted scapes so prized by oriental chefs.

Shallots are planted in the same manner. They are a multiplier onion that from one bulb planted in the fall, a multitude may be harvested the following summer. The greens also make excellent scallions.

This year, we are growing the Artichoke garlic as the softneck variety, so named for the pronounced cloves that, to some, are reminiscent of the artichoke.

In both cases the cloves are twisted from the bulb and planted, with a dibble, about two inches deep on a furrow which prevents the bulb from becoming water logged while providing a moist situation for the roots.

Shallots are planted in the same manner. They are a multiplier onion that from one bulb planted in the fall, a multitude may be harvested the following summer. The greens also make excellent scallions.