Plugging the garlic hungry gap

Have you found yourself scratching through the pantry recently, looking for the final, unsprouted clove of last summer’s garlic, desperately holding onto the hope that there just must be, there just has to be, one more lurking in a corner somewhere?

Scratch no more! Because even though cured garlic is still months away, we’ve got spring garlic to the rescue! Spring Russian garlic, that is.

This is spring garlic with a backstory. We grew it last year from perennialised plants that had claimed a corner of Lauren’s grandmother’s garden for the past 50-odd years. Last year when we grew it in the H.U plot, we saved the biggest cloves and planted them out in April this year, with the “garlic hungry gap” in mind.

Russian garlic is actually part of the leek family, but grows large, garlic-like bulbs with a milder flavour, if left to mature. It’s super hardy - hence the 50-year tenure it has at gran’s house and the fact that it’s often seen growing wild around former homesteads and along roadsides - and grows back like flower bulbs if not harvested.

The mature bulbs, once cured, are huuuuuge, easy to peel and are good for roasting whole, slicing to make garlic chips, or for using like regular garlic, when you’re looking for a milder flavour. Stored properly, these babies can last a whole year without sprouting.

We like them best harvested before the bulbs form, when their stems are still green and tender like leeks (with a garlicky boost!). The stems are only white at the bottom, but like leeks, are tender right along their length, so don’t miss out on the eating some of the green stem! They can be braised whole like leeks, or shredded raw and tossed through salads and slaws.

This is the start of the year’s garlicky good times, with garlic scapes and cured garlic juuuuust around the corner. No more pantry scrounging for you!