My favourite time of year. The farmers market is full of wonderful fresh produce. So much to choose from. And my favourite is garlic. I picked up 10 bulbs of Susan Delafield garlic. One of my favourite varieties. Over the next 4 to 6 weeks I'll pick up a few bulbs every weekend and that should keep me going until after the New Year.

Di

My cousin's husband grows garlic and gave me a head of it. What a huge difference! I never knew that garlic would resemble a fresh onion when cut (the texture), or that it would be as crisp as fresh celery. What a treat! Also, discovered it is more pungent.
Yours are fabulous.
Jo

When I cook for the church I insist on fresh garlic. One woman asked if I really thought there was much difference in taste between fresh and that chopped stuff in the jar....
Abolutely!
Linda C

Shelley

Amen.

That would be a hard necked garlic? I find that the hard necked varieties keep very well, but as Jo mentioned, the fresh stuff can be a lot more pungent than the kind I buy at my local grocery and so I have to be a little more careful with it.

When I finally get out to the farm I can stop growing garlic in my flower box and actually grow it in the ground, then I'll get bigger heads. Right now I tend to get one or two cloves of garlic per head, about the size of my thumbnail, because it doesn't have room to spread out or enough sun because of the shade from my front porch roof.

Beautiful, beautiful garlic, Ann, I love those purple varieties too.

Annie

Serves 8

Ingredients

2 small whole, chicken breasts, boned and skinned, cut into thin strips
6 Tbs flour
1/2 Tbs red pepper flakes
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
salt to taste [optional]
4 Tbs yellow onion, sliced thin
6-8 cloves garlic, sliced
4 Tbs butter
6 Tbs olive oil
½ cup tomatoes, seeded, peeled, diced
1 tsp dried oregano (or a couple of sprigs of fresh)
4 Tbs fresh basil, chopped
2 Tbs fresh parsley, chopped
12 ounces chicken broth
12 ounces angel hair pasta

Directions

Flatten chicken breasts and cut into thin 1/2" by 1" strips. In a plastic storage bag, mix flour, pepper flakes, and ground pepper. Put chicken strips into bag and shake.

Slice onion and garlic. If using fresh tomatoes, peel, seed, and chop. Chop parsley and basil.

When all ingredients are prepared, put water on to boil for the pasta.

Heat 1/2 of the butter and olive oil in a large skillet on medium high heat. Add 1/2 of the chicken strips and brown each side lightly. Remove chicken from skillet with a slotted spoon, add remainder of butter and oil, heat, and add remainder of chicken. Remove when browned.

Add onion to skillet, reduce heat, and sauté until soft. Scrape chicken bits from bottom of skillet. Add garlic and sauté briefly (not brown).

Add tomatoes, oregano, basil, and parsley. Mix thoroughly and heat well. For a thicker "sauce", add a tablespoon or so of the remaining dredging flour at this point.

Add chicken stock and simmer until reduced by 1/3.

Return chicken to skillet, mix thoroughly, and reduce heat to lowest setting.

Add pasta to boiling water.

Put drained pasta onto plates in small nests and spoon chicken and sauce onto pasta.

Garnish: light sprinkle of chopped fennel leaf, parsley, basil

Joe

Jo, yes fresh is amazing. Because this garlic is soooo fresh it is still very juicy.

Linda, you are right to insist on the real thing. There is no substitute for fresh garlic.

Terri, the reason it keeps so long is because it is fresh and I store it in one spot away from any heat source. The reason garlic sprouts is because of the change of temperatures it goes through. Most of the garlic in our grocery stores comes from Asia. It is transported in refrigerated units and then when it gets to its destination it is stored in warm warehouses. And, then it is moved out into a warmer grocery store. The change from cold to warm is what causes it to start sprouting.

Annie, remember you sent me a few of your garlics? They might have been small but they were big on flavour.

Ann

I plan to plant garlic this fall. At $2.00 to $4.00 a head I think I would like to give growing my own a try.

Joe, thanks, that recipe sounds delicious.

If you really like fresh garlic, you need to grow your own. Much better from a cost perspective. It is SO easy to grow. You just set it in the fall and pretty much let it do its thing until July. If you have a really dry spring and summer some water is called for but man it is easy.

If you live in the Northwest, you really need to check out the selection at Territorial Seed Company. They have about 25+ selections, ranging from relatively mild elephant garlic to some truly hot varieties (which I like).

They are beautiful pics though!

Since it's stronger than those big white heads from the grocery store, I don't use as much anyway.

I do wonder, though, why more local gardeners don't grow garlic, you never see it at the farmer's markets here.

Annie

Fresh garlic scapes are way better than garlic. They are very expensive, if you can find them.

dcarch

Stir fryi, I guess that is why they sell garlic in a jar or powdered. Something for everyone. I love garlic so much it doesn't bother me to get it on my hands or my boards and utensils. It washes off. You would really hate the fresh garlic, because it is so juicy it really gets all over hands and boards. A little salt or fresh lemon rubbed on the hands before washing is a quick way to get rid of the garlic smell. And you can rub your wooden cutting boards with salt and a lemon to get rid of odors.
Ann

I agree with queequeg99, Territorial Seed has a great selection! But........you'll want to think about ordering NOW! They sell out of some varieties very quickly!!

I grew "Music" this year and it's wonderful! You can order now and they will wait until the appropriate planting time to bill you and ship!

Territorial Seed is only about 30-40 miles from me. I've been into their very small retail store. The majority of their business is mail order. The store is right at the testing fields so that's fun to see!

JMHO,
Deanna

We love garlic also. Planted 6 varieties this year:

Boyatyr-great bulbs of fire
Italian Late
Elephant-bought from Amish in Iowa
Purple Glazer
Siberian-beautiful purple stripe inside
Inchelium Red-somehow got lost in the digging of the garlic

Some of these varieties are new to us this year, so havent had time to use them yet. A few of the garlics are still curing.

Some of the different ways we have used the garlic is when roasting vegetables there are always at least 10 or more cloves mixed in. Yesterday we did fresh fat green beans with garlic...that was so good. Used some fresh garlic in marinade for sirlion steak on the grill. Hubby loves fresh potatoes out of the garden, mashed with lots of roasted and fresh garlic. Also roasted chicken stuffed with lots of garlic under the skin.

In terms of storing it:
I bought garlic recently, and the guy said something about it not being cured all the way-- I think the paper has to be dried out so it doesn't get moldy. I think you can do this by using the leg of pantyhose with a knot between each bulb, so you get good air circulation (Ann?)

I also experimented with the freezer, and was very pleased with the results. I did two batches, one with diced garlic and one with whole cloves. (Incidentally, stirfryi, have you tried covering entire cloves in oil and slooooow sauteeing them? It's an incredibly mild, nice garlic flavor. Alton Brown had a special-- the smaller you chop it, the stronger it tastes, something about breaking cell walls and something reacting with something to create the strong garlicky smell when you chop it). I sauteed the garlic, let it cool a little, and poured it, oil and all, into a plastic container and froze it, then dumped out the ring of frozen garlic oil and cut it into pieces, and put them in a Ziploc in the freezer, so I could just grab a slice and throw it into whatever. I'm quite pleased with the taste.

And I vote for cloves in the cloves-scapes war :-D