Favorite garlic to plant?

[spike]

I always planted Music garlic.  I think because that is what my Old Uncle told me to plant.  My favorite part was when the scapes came in! 

[hmoosek]

Our garlic was found growing here years ago. It’s like an elephant type, but has a bite to it. Meaning it isn’t mild like most elephant types are. When I moved away from the farm, kinfolk killed off most of it, but I was lucky enough to bring some down on this end of the farm for my uncle. It reseeds itself year to year. If I took better care of it, I could really multiply it, but I usually just let it take care of itself. It stays in a single bulb, unless I replant it, then I’ll get cloves.

[spike]

Jul 18, 2022 1:17:48 GMT -6 @bon said:

Would love to try scapes.

Scapes are the bomb!!  Garlic . . . yeah yeah . . . But SCAPES!!  Love cooking with them, chopping them up in salads, pickling them and just out flat chewing on them!!

[hmoosek]

Speaking of which, I need to dig a few up and replant in another location come October.

[Deleted]

I really like to plant a variety called Chamisal Wild. I bought it from Keene Garlic (https://keeneorganics.com/product/chamisal-wild-naturally-grown-garlic-bulbs/). The flavor is mild and I don't get heart burn from it unlike some garlic.

[amyinowasso]

I tried a variety of hard necks one year, but neither my husband or I found any we liked. We use a lot of store bought garlic and that's what we're used to. AND the best crop I ever got, that kept the longest was from store bought cloves. I have bought similar soft neck from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.

[macmex]

Over the years I've planted a number of varieties. I even brought home from one of my Mexico trips, a mixed bag of garlic (hard neck, soft neck, artichoke style, etc.) and planted them. I also obtained elephant garlic, of which I have fond memories from my childhood. One year someone gave me something like six varieties which all came from Southern Exposure Seed (if I recall correctly). Over the next few years I got them all mixed up. It's been simply impossible to keep them straight as no matter how carefully I dig them, some always escape and come up out side of any garlic patch I plant. I can't bear to weed them out either. So now I just have assorted hardneck, softneck and elephant garlic.

I think I like the hardneck best, for flavor. I do indeed love that it produces scapes. Elephant garlic is a favorite, not because of the flavor (which is alright) but because it's so easy to process when we use it.

The beginning of this week a friend at church gave me some heads of garlic which he claims were grown at "Tenkiller," a hundred years ago. This variety looks kind of similar to elephant garlic. It'll take growing it out before I can rightly compare. He told me that his aunt moved this garlic from "Tenkiller" to Muskogee fifty years ago. He got it from her. I wonder if by "Tenkiller" they meant the land that is now under Lake Tenkiller? I need to investigate.

I will have to pick a spot where I've never grown garlic and try to keep this one separate long enough to share with others who will preserve it for posterity.

[heavyhitterokra]

George,

According to the Corps of Engineers' records, Tenkiller Dam was designed and built by the Tulsa District, Corps of Engineers, at a cost of $23,687,000. The project was started in 1947, placed in flood control operation in July 1953 and power was placed on the line in December 1953.

In my head, that seems like 'about 50 years ago' but in reality, it was about 69-70 years ago.  When I think of things that went on a hundred years ago, I think of the late 1800s.  A hundred years ago, was just back in the 1920s.  In my head, my grandma was born a hundred years ago, but apparently as I have aged, my head has come to recollect a few decades off.