We tried growing garlic this year – not always an easy thing to do in Sydney, as we usually don’t get cold enough to set the bulbs.
We had planned to leave the plants in a bit longer, but the recent heavy rain necessitated some urgent harvesting before they rotted away. Once the leaves start to wilt, it’s best to keep all water off it from that time onwards.
Our garlic was planted in an old laundry tub and the resultant bulbs are pretty small – some are only a couple of centimetres (about an inch) in diameter. But they have the most amazing aroma! These now need to be cured (air dried in a shady spot) for two to four weeks – hopefully they’ll form hard papery skins and store well for the coming months.
A couple of the bulbs were threatening to rot, so we’ve broken them up for cooking. We were delighted to find they’d formed proper cloves. The garlic was wonderfully pungent and strongly flavoured – definitely an incentive to try planting these again next year. Our “crop” won’t be enough to see us through the year, so we’ll stock up again on Diana and Ian’s garlic once it’s ready. It’s fabulous not to have to buy imported garlic!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I have found that the smaller little cloves are the most pungent in flavor. The bigger garlic heads seem to be more mild- so maybe the smaller ones are more concentrated?
that is a good crop for a container!
I’m of the opinion that we fellow garlic growers all suffer from the “size matters” syndrome! I think we will never be truly satisfied – but I also think that there’s something to the argument that the smaller bulbs can be, and often are, the most pungent and flavorful of a batch.
Garlic in my garden is sadly often one of the most disappointing of my crops – this is compounded by the fact that for many kinds of garlic, this is an almost perfect environment – we have very wet and moderately cold winters, during which the over-wintering garlic can begin developing its root system, and when summer begins in earnest in June, the rain literally stops – which creates a perfect harvest time.
I’d probably feel better about my puny garlic if it were not for the lady who runs our local health food store – each summer she sells her own home grown Thai garlic, which approach the size of a baseball – I buy 10 or so heads each year, and these are the ones I plant – but the resulting heads are never more than half the size of the mother bulbs – and the health food lady is not yet willing to share her secrets.
Gardening can be one of life’s great sources of satisfaction, and at times, some of life’s great frustrations – perhaps both are necessary!
Well done Celia – your first ever crop of garlic, how exciting. It’s hard to tell size from the photos, but the bulbs look good.
Not easy in your climate: well done. Some gardeners in similar situations have used their deep freezers successfully to fool the bulbs.
Your home grown garlic looks the best!! I love food fresh from the garden!!
Yeah for your produce!
When I was in highschool I had a job for a week harvesting garlic. They had been uprooted by machine and left on the ground to mature, it was our job to trim tops and bottoms, tidy them up and put them in bins. I decided I would wear the same jeans for the week, and took them off in the laundry each night. The whole house took on the aroma of garlic, the scent carried through the dusty soil on my clothes. It didn’t put me off though, and I still looove the deliciousness of garlic and will eat it at any opportunity. Yummmmm….. Great job Celia!
Garlic butter, confit garlic, pickled garlic, garlic spiked through roast lamb, roast whole bulbs of garlic, garlic bread, garlic flavoured olive oil, garlic in stir fries, garlic in marinades, delicate savoury wobbly garlic custard,…… oh your delicious conondrum, what to cook first?
Heidi, you might well be on to something there! The small little heads really are so aromatic and the flavour has been intense!
Doc, I wonder why that is? Must be something to do with your soil not being a conducive environment? I read that garlic shouldn’t be grown with beans and peas, as it knocks them about? Mind you, I’d be more than happy with garlic heads that were half the size of a baseball! :)
Choc, the photo is a bit deceptive, they really are very small, some of them are like large marbles. But we’re very excited nonetheless! :)
Peter, one of our local gardening programmes just said the same thing – start them in the fridge for a month or so before trying to plant them out. We’ll give that a go next time – thank you!
Sophie, thank you! :)
Chef, I’m like a mother hen with them at the moment – they’re hanging from a clothes horse on the back deck, and I keep going out to inspect them! And you’re right, there’s far too many choices cooking-wise! :)
Enjoy every little scrap of those lovely cloves Celia!
I’ve never had any success growing garlic in Brisbane, it just withers and dies. I should try it on my balcony in Italy. I get a fine crop of daffodils and a solitary tulip every spring.
Well done, I’m so surprised anyone has been able to grow garlic with all this wet weather. I bought some Australian garlic at the markets the other day & its seriously the best garlic I’ve ever tasted (so, so superior to the ick imported stuff).
Imagine all the yummy things you can cook with your own garlic Celia… :)
That’s a very impressive crop of garlic! How long did they take to get to that stage?
Hurrah! Hurrah! The nouveau garlic est arrivé !! Well done! How fabulous to have precious home grown garlic at last!
The Isle of White has a commercial garlic farm, they’re the ones who come to our Sunday markets once a month with their wonderful garlics. There’s a quote on their website saying that garlic is going to be grown more and more by amateur gardeners because consumption has increased in China and so there are shortages on the world market. http://www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk. It’s an interesting site, and has a ‘ grow your own section’ though growing conditions here in the UK will be different of course. Tells you about all the different types of garlic and so on.
Dear Celia,
Your garlic looks wonderful!!!
Well done to you and Pete,
Di xx
Well done, Celia. I know of plenty of foodies who will be very envious of your precious crop!
I picked our little garlic crop today too. I bought some bulbs earlier on in the year from some markets. An old “Italian” man grows the best garlic so I bought a couple of bulbs and divided them up. I don’t know if he is Italian but that is what we call him. He has all the old fashioned veggies for sale. People go to his stall to get his fruit,it might not look the best but it certainly tastes better and is longer lasting.
Happy days.
Bev.xoxo
Brydie, thank you, we absolutely intend to! :)
Deb, next year I’m going to try putting the bulbs in the fridge as Peter suggested. On Gardening Australia they suggested the same thing for growing garlic in Brisbane.
Anna, thank you – we’re pretty excited too! :)
Claire, we planted them in June, and pulled them out early December, so nearly six months growing time!
Jo, thank you, I’ll check out their site! We have been waiting for what feels like forever! :)
Diana, they’re grown from your lovely buds, but they’re no way near as large or beautiful as the ones we bought from you last year! I’m looking forward to topping up my supplies when your heads are ready.. :)
Amanda, thank you! Does it grow well in Adelaide?
Bev, sometimes I wonder if there are just natural instincts in previous generations that we’ve lost – an innate knowledge perhaps of how to grow and when to harvest. Certainly my elderly Italian neighbour could make just about anything grow!
Well done Celia. Always such a treat to see what you and Pete harvest.
Years ago, my husband and I stuck some cloves of garlic into the soil in our herb garden to keep little critters at bay and they grew into the most wonderful heads of garlic. We should try it again.
:-) Mandy
Thanks Mandy! How wonderful that garlic grows so easily where you are! :)
How lucky. I tried growing garlic this year and it didn’t take. I was most disappointed.
I’ll have to try again. Looking forward to seeing what you do with it all!
If there’s no garlic in heaven, I’m not going.
Alice, thank you, I hope you have better luck with the next attempt! We’ll definitely be trying again too! :)
Lee, of course there’s garlic in heaven. ;-)
looks great Celia! we have failed at garlic too often but it’s SO hard to get good fresh Australian garlic that I think it’s worth trying.
I have been making shortbread for the freezer – thanks again for your recipe, absolutely fantastic and so good to know that over the holidays there can always be a quick bake at the ready.
did anyone have advice on where in Sydney to buy good garlic? I’d love to get some this weekend. . .
No matter how much or how little you grow, the homegrown garlic is always so much nicer than any other! And no-one knows how small it was once it’s all mixed into a pot of absolute deliciousness.
Each year I aim to plant more than the previous year, I doubt our supply will last us a year, although I don’t think it stores longer for 9 months anyway (at room temp, that is). Our garlic was laid out onto newspaper inside, and after the stems went brown, I plaited them up and have hung them in the kitchen – so nice to admire while sitting at the table or pottering at the bench! Enjoy your wonderful homegrown garlic, Celia :)
Anne, jinx, I just put five rolls of shortbread dough in my freezer too over the weekend! I buy my garlic from my friends Diana and Ian – link to there details is here – but I don’t think their garlic is fully cured and ready yet. I did see Australian garlic at the potato stall at Flemington markets last weekend as well.
Chris, when I buy a large batch from Di and Ian, I most of it into cloves, leave the paper on, and freeze it in a vacuum sealed bag. I never lose any to mould that way – the humidity here can play havoc with the garlic! The frozen garlic loses its crisp texture, but it keeps it flavour, and is much easier to peel when defrosted. I did read something Choclette sent me recently though which said that if you were keen to keep the health benefits, it was better to freeze the garlic peeled and chopped and stored in oil.
It seems that there’s never enough really good locally grown garlic. The Patrice Newell garlic sells out like a shot and even when I was in Canada, they said that the good garlic only lasts them a certain amount of time and they have to put imports after that. We need more garlic growers! :)
I want to move in with y’all! LOVE LOVE every single thing you grow in your garden. The garlic looks delish! One of my favorite summer treats is to simply slice the top off the garlic, drizzle with evoo, dash of salt and pep, wrap up in tin foil and roast until tender. Let cool enough to handle (or if you are impatient like me, use tongs) and squeeze out the roasted garlic paste. Use as a spread on bread or crackers or with veggies. I also use that paste mixed with butter and herbs on my Thanksgiving turkey. Soooo good!
i SO agree Lorraine – just not enough grown here!
thank you for the link Celia – i am going to markets on saturday so will see if i can find some there.
When you get great garlic, you realise how bad the other stuff is. When are the best times to plant garlic and when do you usually harvest it?
Lorraine, Anne, we definitely need more locally grown garlic!
Susan, I think conventional wisdom says to plant on the winter’s solstice and harvest on the summer’s solstice. We didn’t quite do that – from memory we planted around late May and harvested on 1st December (we’re in Sydney Australia).