Garlic Scapes
Organic garlic scapes are becoming quite popular with chefs and they are making a scene at local Farmer's Markets. You can sauté garlic scapes in your favorite pasta dish, dry garlic scapes to use them all winter long in soups, roasts or stir fries. Or freeze them in some wonderful garlic scape pesto. (see recipe below) Sorry, our Certified Organic Garlic Scapes are sold out for the season. Please order early for next years garlic scape season. Garlic scapes ship in June, garlic seed ships in September, Thanks. About Garlic Scapes - Don't know what a "Garlic Scape" is? Garlic scapes [...]
Garlic Bulbils
Got Garlic Bulbils? You may be able to plant them! When garlic scapes are left on the garlic plant, they will mature into garlic bulbils. Garlic bulbils are what most people will call garlic flowers, though they are not flowers at all. The garlic scapes will form into garlic bulbils if they are not cut off the plant. You can grow garlic bulbs from garlic bulbils, it just may take up to three years for decent bulb size to develop. Some garlic varieties are easier to grow garlic from bulbils than others. Listed here are the Garlic Groups and [...]
Garlic Tips
Tips on Using and Storing Your Garlic Harvest - Now that you have harvested your own organic seed garlic, you are ready to use it. Here are some great garlic tips for using and storing extra garlic from your garlic harvest. How to store your extra organic culinary garlic and organic seed garlic Garlic stores best when it is kept cool and dry. We store our garlic seed in our garage that is kept at about 59 degrees. Make sure it is out of direct sunlight, away from any source of heat and that it has good air circulation. [...]
Organic Certification
Growing organic garlic as seen from a farmers perspective - We have been Certified Organic by the WSDA since May 2016. Being Certified Organic means that we have a responsibility to our customers to grow the highest quality organic seed garlic and organic culinary garlic available. To earn the USDA organic label from the WSDA, our farm has to pass a yearly inspection. All Hood River Garlic is grown in the Pacific Northwest. To serve our many customers, we have some growers who grow garlic for us as well. All of our garlic growers are Certified Organic. All garlic [...]
Garlic Groups
The 10 Garlic Groups: Artichoke, Asiatic, Creole, Glazed Purple Stripe, Marbled Purple Stripe, Porcelain, Purple Stripe, Rocambole, Silverskin and Turban. Garlic (Allium sativum) has two sub species, softneck (sativum) and hardneck (ophioscorodon). Softnecks are good keepers and allow easy braiding. The hardneck refers to the "scape" that later produces a flower, or bulbils. Hardnecks: Species Allium sativum; Subspecies ophioscorodon. Hardnecks are favored by chefs for having exceptional flavor, and large easy to peel cloves. They do well in cold climates, and have medium storage quality. They are characterized by a strong woody stem growing in the center. This stem produces a [...]
How to Grow Garlic
Step 1. Choosing your garlic planting stock - Start by choosing some premium quality organic seed garlic from Hood River Garlic! Your seed stock is the most important facet of growing garlic. It all starts at the clove! Each individual clove is a garlic seed and it will grow into a bulb. Beginning with premium garlic planting seed stock will make a huge difference when harvest time comes. When choosing your garlic seed, plant the largest cloves of each garlic bulb, small cloves should be eaten. To separate cloves from the bulb, hold the bulb in one hand and use [...]