(1/2) lb Romanian Red Hardneck Garlic for eating/planting-Culinary Grade

Romanian Red is a hardneck porcelain variety originally brought from Romania by horticulturist John Swenson in the 1990s. This variety is one of my favorites that I just have to grow every year. Compared to Music and other cultivars, this variety yields consistently large and beautiful cloves with a powerhouse of hot flavor to boot. In fact, Romanian Red is known to have the highest concentrations of Allicin (the medicinal component to garlic) that we know of, which explains its hot flavor. 

WANT TO PLANT IT? 

You sure can! A lot of garlic sold in stores is sprayed with a sprout inhibitor, this has not been sprayed by anything at all so it will sprout for you no problem as a seed. Culinary grade won't lead to giant bulbs next season, but it most certainly will if you keep propagating the same cloves over and over again. Plus, you will still get the delicious scapes in June. Garlic that is grown within the same region will consistently get better and bigger each year as the plant grows accustomed to the climate. The choice is yours! Personally, when I buy garlic from garlic growers I like to eat and plant because the scapes alone are worth it.

PLANTING INSTRUCTIONS

Plant 4" deep, 6-8" apart in full sun in mid October. Keep soil moist, mulch in winter when you see it sprouting around November. Harvest when about half the plant has browned from the bottom, up. Don't yank the garlic out, but pry it out carefully from the ground up and not by the neck of the plant. 

SCAPE HARVEST

Around mid June you will see this super weird dorky looking thing pop up like a rocket straight up to the sky with a flower bulb at the top. When you see the scape do a full curl, cut it off with a pair of pruners at the base. Eat it raw, sauté it like asparagus, or turn into a garlic pesto (This is the way...). Like asparagus, the bottom part of the stalk might be a bit to hard or stalky to eat, my rule of thumb is 'if you can bend it 90 degrees easily, it's pesto worthy'

Happy Growing!