A BRIEF HISTORY OF GARLIC

SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 JORDAN CHARBONNEAU 1 COMMENT

Turkis
h Red Hard neck Garlic
Garlic’s easy cultivation and powerful flavor has made it a favorite for farmers and chefs
alike. It’s is an unbelievably common ingredient in food today worldwide but few people
realize that garlic is one of the oldest known horticultural crops. Evidence from historical
records suggests that garlic has been cultivated for at least 5000 years! There are
references to its use found from ancient Egypt, India, and China.
Garlic is believed to be originally native to Central Asia as this is where it can currently
be found growing wild. Many plants referred to as “wild garlic” worldwide are members
of the Allium family (leeks, onions, shallots, chives) but are not in fact true garlic
or Allium Sativum. All cultivated garlic comes from two subspecies A. sativum var.
ophioscorodon and A. sativum var. sativum. Like many “wild garlics” elephant garlic,
though tasty, is not a a “true garlic” but is instead a member of the onion genus.
Garlic Scapes
A. sativum var. ophioscorodon often referred to simply as ophioscorodon are
the hardneck garlics. They are generally grown in cooler northern climates
and typically produce fewer but larger cloves. They also produce garlic
scapes or flower heads. These are generally cut off before they open and
eaten. This allows the garlic to put energy into the bulb rather than
flowering.
A. sativum var. sativum are the softenck garlics. They do better in hotter
climates farther south than hardneck garlics do. They’re also favored for
braiding and their ability to keep extremely well in storage.
The cultivation of garlic probably came about because it was easy for people
to pull up and travel with for later use or to plant somewhere else. Garlic
cultivation may have also been a quickly taken up by humans because of it’s
ability to reproduce both sexually and asexually. Meaning that garlic can
make seed, combining genes with other garlic plants, but it is also very
simple to grow garlic clones from individual cloves.
Another reason garlic may have quickly become so popular and widespread
is because it grows well in a wide range of climates and soil conditions. Garlic
is also very hardy and susceptible to few diseases and pests. So much so
that in modern gardens it’s used as a companion plant to deter certain pests.
As people traveled and traded garlic’s use and cultivation spread. Little is
known about most of its first travels around Asia but it is documented that
garlic was first brought to Europe by the Crusaders.

Interestingly garlic has played more than a culinary role in human history. It’s
been used for both spiritual and medicinal purposes through the years. In
fact, it’s the most widely recognized medicinal herb.
In medieval times it was believed that garlic could ward off all types of evil. A
belief that easily lent garlic for use in warding off vampires. Many cultures
also believed that garlic was an aphrodisiac or held special powers relating to
love. In the Middle Ages it was grown by the monasteries for its healing
powers.
.
Hardneck garlic
Hardneck garlic | Photo by Abigail Curtis
Hardneck garlic (Allium sativum ophioscorodon) are characterized by woody central
stalks and a green curly stalk, also known as a scape. Hardneck garlic forms cloves
through a process of vernalization, whereby the garlic is exposed to cold temperatures
by staying in the ground over the course of the winter. There are usually between four
and twelve cloves in each bulb.

“People tend to like big bulbs,” said David Fuller, agriculture and non-timber forest
product professional at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. “When well
grown, hardnecks grow pretty big bulbs.”
Hardneck garlic grows best in areas with cold weather conditions.

“Hardnecks are the ones that are typically grown in Maine,” Fuller said.

You may see hundreds of varieties of garlic on the market with different colors and
flavors. Fuller explained that garlic is grown by planting cloves directly into the ground,
so it is fairly easy to develop a new varietal with a slightly different taste depending on
the environmental conditions where they are grown.

All these varieties can generally be categorized into one of less than a dozen
groups, though. A 2004 study showed that the genetic fingerprints of 211
different varieties of garlic could basically be put into ten groups, eight of
which are hardneck garlic: the robust, slightly sweet Rocambole; the hot,
sulfurous Porcelain; the tasty, raw Purple Stripe; the hardy, bakeable Marble
Purple Stripe; the plump, glossy Asiatic; the succulent, easily-harvested
Turban; the rosy, warm Creole and richly violet, quickly maturing Glazed
Purple Stripe.

The varieties within each of these groups may look and taste slightly
different, but they are essentially genetically the same.

“People will rename them. A [Porcelain hardneck] garlic that was discovered
in Philips, Maine, lo and behold, will become Philips garlic,” Fuller said. “Along
with Music and German Extra Hardy [which are also Porcelain hardneck
garlics], it’s pretty much the same garlic it’s just been given a different
name.”

Softneck garlic
Cross section of Inchelium Red softneck garlic. | Photo by David Fuller
If you shop for garlic in a supermarket, you are likely to come across softneck garlic
(Allium sativum sativum). Softneck garlic produces more cloves than hardneck garlic
and usually has a clove in place of the signature woody scape, but they are generally
less flavorful than their hardneck counterparts.

“The advantage of soft versus hard is that with the softneck, you can braid it,
whereas a hardneck will have a scape, which is hard and woody,” Fuller said.
“Hardneck garlic is difficult to braid because you have to break the neck.”
Though the braid is strictly decorative, Fuller said it is a fun way to display
and easily access garlic, especially for a rustic farmhouse kitchen look.

Softneck garlic does not require as much cold exposure are hardneck garlic.
“Soft[neck] garlic is mainly grown in the south,” said Bob Westerfield, senior
public service associate at the University of Georgia Extension. “The
hard[neck] type likes cooler climates.”

The two main groups of softneck garlic are Silverskin, which is high-yielding,
adaptable and the kind that you are most likely to see braided, and
Artichoke, which has a thick outer layer and a longer shelf life. Softneck
garlic is also used for processed garlic foods, like garlic powder and other
seasonings.

Garlic
Scapes

Garlic scapes | Photo by Sarah Walker Caron

Though the basic categories of hardneck and softneck garlic encompass all
true garlic, there are different ways to harvest garlic that you may see on
your dinner plate or on the stands of your farmers market or grocery store.

One way is to harvest the garlic scapes from hardneck garlic in the spring.
The scape is the flowering stalk that grows in the middle of hardneck garlic
bulbs. If left to grow, the green stem will curl and form a white bulb, but it is
usually removed so that the plant will not produce more seeds and will
instead grow a bigger bulb.

Fuller said to harvest the scapes when they first come up, before the stem
gets woody.

“I am a proponent of harvesting it as soon as you can,” Fuller explained.

“Snap it off in the morning when the plant has more turgor, so you can snap
them right off. I don’t recommend waiting until the curl because the later you
wait, the harder the scape gets.”

Luckily, scrapped scapes — which are also widely available at farmers

markets — can be reused in your kitchen. They are delicious, tender and
crisp sauteed in butter or olive oil with salt.

“They’re great in pesto,” Fuller said. “People pickle them and use them in stir
fries”
Spring garlic

Sprin
g garlic for sale at a farmers’ market. | Photo courtesy of David Fuller
Spring garlic, or green garlic, which commonly appears on farmers markets
during the summer, is another method of growing garlic. Instead of planting
garlic in the fall and letting it vernalize to form cloves, plant garlic in the
spring and harvest it at the end of the summer.

Spring garlic looks like scallions and has a fresh, mild and almost nutty flavor.
Spring garlic is common in Asian cuisine can be used as a substitute for
leeks, scallions, chives or garlic in a recipe (one stalk, Fuller said, is about
equal to one clove). Fuller, personally, recommended chopping spring garlic
up and sauteeing it with scrambled eggs.
Not quite garlic …
Wild garlic
There are also a few plants that are called garlic that are not technically
classified as garlic.

You can forage for wild garlic (Allium vineale), which has a strong flavor and
can be used to flavor broth or for a number of medicinal benefits. However,
in many areas, wild garlic is considered a weed and is not consumed.

“Wild garlic is a bad turf weed in the South,” Westerfield said. “While I
understand it is not poisonous, it is reported to have a very strong and bad
flavor.”

Though more closely related to onions, ramps (Allium tricoccum), sometimes

called wild onions or wild leeks, have a strong flavor somewhere between an
onion and garlic. They are a versatile ingredient that can be blanched,
pickled, fried, sauteed or cooked into a number of dishes.

“You see them in high end restaurants come springtime,” Fuller said. “It’s
more of a thing that people forage, although you can grow them. Ramps
reproduce very slowly, so I recommend people to pick them with great
conservation in mind. Remove one leaf out of the two, don’t dig up the whole
plant so it will keep on living.”

Elephant garlic
Elephant garlic (Allium ampeloprasum), also sometimes known as buffalo
garlic, is actually a misnomer: the enormous bulbs are actually a type of
leek. The bulb forms a few cloves and is generally milder than most garlics. It
is often interchangeable with softneck garlic when cooking, tastes delicious
roasted and works especially well in sauces, vinaigrettes and stir fries.

“The more tender, fleshy lower portion of the seedstalk is also prized as a
stir-fried vegetable,” Westerfield said. “The flavor is milder than garlic and
can be slightly bitter. Elephant garlic grows under the same conditions as
regular garlic.”

Unfortunately, the comically large bulbs can be difficult to grow in cold

climates.
“That’s not reliably hardy so I’m not a big fan of that in terms of trying to
grow it in Maine,” Fuller said. “Maybe in the southern part of the state, but
not in Bangor.”

Knowing the difference between the different things that are known as
“garlic” — whether they are actually garlic or not — will help you be a more
informed grower, shopper and user of the tasty allium.

Garlic at a glance