We’re growing three rows of garlic in our west field, and as you can see they’re coming up very nicely. We tossed some organic nitrogen fertilizer on them this week to help them out, too. Like ramps, garlic belongs to the Allium family, and even the leaves smell pungent. Our boss, Gary, told us that good garlic bulbs are indicated by the thickness of the plant’s stem. Most of these are probably a centimeter wide now. They’re big, too! Most are about a foot-and-a-half tall.
Since these aren’t ready yet, we’ve been buying our own garlic from the grocery store in town. (Do you say “grossry” or “groshry”? Midwesterners talk so weird!) The garlic we’re growing will probably all go out to the CSA shares later this summer, but but BUT I’m hoping that we’ll be able to snag some scapes once those come out. The scapes will kind of snake out from the main joint of the plant in a few weeks.
I use garlic in just about everything, so it’s hard to choose a single recipe for this post. I’ll do a two-fer!
Roasted Garlic
- 1 garlic bulb, with the first third chopped off
- olive oil
- kosher salt
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the bulb on some tinfoil and sprinkle the oil and salt over it. Wrap it up and toss into the oven (probably on a baking sheet if you’re not reckless like me) for about 45 minutes to an hour. Eat on everything. You should definitely add it to hummus, pasta sauces, bread and pizza.
Chipotle Salsa
- A bunch of tomatoes, chopped roughly
- 1/2 an onion, chopped roughly
- A can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
- 3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped
- cilantro
- salt and pepper
- olive oil
Saute the onion and garlic with the olive oil over medium heat. Once they’re nice and browned, add the tomatoes and chipotles. Stir and let the mixture simmer for about 10 minutes. Let it cool off, and put the whole mix into a blender and puree with cilantro, salt, pepper and additional chipotles if you want it spicier. (I usually do.) Also eat on everything.
