Big Garlic Plans for 2011
Warning: This post contains no pictures and minimal nonsense; if pictures and nonsense are what you came here for, please tune in to the next post for mostly unnecessary birdhouse gourd obsessing.
After my almost accidental garlic “crop” I have decided to put a little thought into next season.
Hardneck isn’t supposed to do well here due to the typically mild southern winters. I may have gotten lucky this year due to this past winter being somewhat colder than “usual”; the garlic is tasty but smallish and ideally the cold enhances the flavor or intensity.
While stumbling around the web recently in my quest for the holy grail of garlic, I discovered “Creole” a hardneck variety that supposedly thrives in hot climates (including Arizona and Texas). This somewhat scarce variety seems to be on the rise; its lineage I believe comes from French cloves grown in Spain over the past few hundred years and the result is warm climate suited hardneck with a rich flavor.
I plan on ordering some of the creole hardneck and a little each of a silver skin and artichoke softneck variety and then in the future start saving the best for the next fall planting. If I stick with it, I ought to have some good stock to work with in a few seasons.
So where to order?
First, I’ll order some from Ronningers Potato Farm LLC. Why? Their little low tech catalog has the best “how to” and cultivation explanation I’ve seen for everything they sell including spuds & garlic. I have felt a little guilty for referring over and over to their catalog’s help pages for my Seed Savers Exchange potatoes. (In my defense the catalog didn’t arrive until well I had already ordered from SSE for fear of the varieties I wanted being sold out.) Also, I emailed them this week about garlic and got a great reply:
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Mr cohutt,
The web-site is not currently set up to take fall garlic orders. We are in a transition stage right now combining two web-sites and once that gets finished we will make the garlic available on-line. You are welcome to call, put a mail order in or fax your order in if you want. I can also take your order for garlic via e-mail and contact you for your payment. We will be happy to help you any way that we can!
They started harvesting the garlic yesterday!! Looks like a great crop so far.
Michelle
Ronniger Potato Farm LLC
877-204-8704
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Additionally, I think I’ll try the creole hardneck from Gourmet Garlic Gardens of Bangs, TX because
1. They have creole available and it grows well in their climate
2. Bangs, Texas looks as hot as it is here
3. I liked their “year in the life” page; garlic farming looks pretty cool. 😉
Behind cohutt's fence 
I was wondering what types of garlic to order for this fall. Thanks for doing the leg work for me. 😉