An apple a day may keep the doctor away, but a head of garlic a day could keep everyone away.
You don’t have to be an introvert, recluse or crotchety old man to appreciate the undeniable power of garlic.
Pharaohs purchased slaves with it. Later, they chose to be buried with it. Roman armies ate it for courage and inspiration. Greek athletes trained on it. Eastern Europeans hung it in their doorways to scare off werewolves and vampires.
But it was the Italians in the early part of the 20th century who sent their kids to school with garlic necklaces to keep them from catching colds.
There’s lots of myth and lore about garlic’s evil eye and aphrodisiac powers, but it’s no big surprise that the necklace trick actually worked.
After all, the Chinese used it more than 3,000 years ago for its health benefits, even though they weren’t aware of its antioxidant and antibacterial properties, not discovered until Louis Pasteur came on the scene.
Depending on whose breath it hovers, garlic is either fragrant or stinky, inviting or offensive.
One thing is for certain – it’s best appreciated when everyone within whiffing distance partakes of this humble member of the lily family and first cousin to onions and scallions.
In most parts of the United States, arguably the best date to plant garlic is on Oct. 12, Columbus Day. But any time before Halloween will work, local gardeners say, because the soil is cooling down.
If you live in Durango, you had better get your “seed” garlic soon, because you have only a couple more weeks to buy it at the Farmers Market, one of a few places in Durango offering “untreated” garlic.
Montezuma County farmers Mary Vozar and Paul Bohmann of Confluence Farm grew 22 crops this year, including about 150 pounds of organic garlic.
In past years, Vozar has grown up to a quarter acre of garlic, but this year she’s determined to build up her supply of seed, holding back some of this year’s crop to plant between now and when the ground freezes, she said.
Vozar grows soft-neck and hard-neck garlic, the two classifications that are commonly distinguished by the flexibility of their stalks. Hard-neck is stiff. Soft-neck is pliable enough that it can be braided.
Most of Vozar’s crop goes to Durango Natural Foods or is sold at Cortez’s Cliffrose High Desert Garden for seed garlic, including the popular Chesnok Red, hard-neck variety that sends up curlicue stalks, called scapes, in the spring.
Seed garlic is what gardeners save from among the best of their crop to plant in the fall for harvest the next year, typically in mid to late summer, depending on the variety grown.
Hard-neck garlic, what some garlic growers prefer for its flavor and pungency, is not the conventional, snow white variety found in most grocery stores, often called California Early or California Late and grown in or near Gilroy, Calif.
“I’d guess 99 percent of the garlic you find in grocery stores is soft-neck,” Vozar said.
What concerns Vozar is that some commercially grown soft-neck garlic is treated with growth inhibitor to lessen the likelihood it will sprout in the store or before use.
It’s not an ideal choice for the home gardener because the inhibitor ensures it won’t sprout as easily when planted, either.
“Buy organic over conventional, especially if you’re concerned about pesticides or herbicides. Do you really need to be ingesting growth inhibitors?” Vozar said.
Vozar grows a variety of soft-neck garlic known as German purple stripe that has up to 20 cloves in a head. Even untreated soft-neck garlic will keep until up to next spring if stored in a cool place and out of direct sunlight.
“Don’t wrap it in plastic or put it in the refrigerator. It needs some air circulation,” Vozar said.
This week, Animas Valley gardener Ron Pettigrew will be planting seven varieties of soft- and hard-neck garlic in raised beds he built in his backyard.
Both he and Vozar grow a hard-neck, porcelain-pink-skinned variety called Music, popular because it has four to six very large cloves per head, making it easy to peel and ideal to roast in the oven, Pettigrew said.
“It has a distinctive, true garlic flavor, and it’s not too spicy,” he said.
Pettigrew’s favorite soft-neck is Inchelium Red, originally found in the Colville Indian Reservation, a relatively spicy variety that he and his wife, Janet, prefer to smoke.
Russian Red, a very hot, hard-neck variety grows large bulbs yet has great flavor, Pettigrew said.
“Can you think of anything that doesn’t go well with garlic?”
He estimates that he grows between 50 and 75 pounds a year, planting when the soil temperature is about 50 degrees at 4 inches deep, the ideal depth for most garlic. Cool soil is necessary to keep the garlic from sprouting prematurely, he said.
Pettigrew prefers to cover the beds with more than a foot of pine needles, rather than leaves, which are attractive to elk. Some of the needles are raked back in the spring when the garlic pokes through the soil.
Both Vozar and Pettigrew agree garlic is good for you, but that’s not the primary reason they eat it.
Vozar said she eats it for its unique flavor.
“It’s a staple in our diet. I pretty much start everything I cook with olive oil, onions and garlic,” Vozar said, referring to a recent pot of ratatouille she prepared that combined squash, eggplant, onions, peppers, tomatoes and herbs, crops she and her partner, Paul Bohmann, grow in a two-acre plot at Confluence Farm and sell through a community-supported agriculture program.
“I make my ratatouille with lots of garlic,” Vozar said.
She and Pettigrew talked of the caramelized flavor that roasting creates, an almost sweet, mild treat that can be eaten as is on bread or squeezed from the peels to enhance mashed potatoes and other root vegetables.
Vozar uses a garlic press because it uniformly minces, keeping the pungent oils off her fingers. She recommends peeling garlic by pressing the broad flat, blade of a knife against the cloves to loosen the skin.
Vozar also cooks with the garlic scapes that only hard-neck garlic forms in the spring, using the milder-flavored shoots as a seasoning.
For those thinking of planting their first garlic crop, Pettigrew and Vozar have words of encouragement.
Garlic is really easy to grow, they said.
kbrucolianesi@durangoherald.com
