Green garlic isn't necessarily green, it's just young and hasn't formed cloves.
[HOST INTRO] Farmers’ Markets often offer produce you won’t find in supermarkets — things that are unusual, fragile or that the average person simple doesn’t know how to cook. Green garlic, for instance. In this installment of the Market & Garden Report, correspondent Guy Hand asks an expert about those tender, young shoots called green garlic.
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(Hand) I’m at the Capital City Public Market with Charlene Stelling of Riverview Gardens in Fruitland. I call her the garlic lady, because in another month, she’ll have dozens of different kinds of garlic bulbs for sale. For now though, she’s selling a springtime treat called green garlic. It’s immature garlic, young, tender garlic shoots that many people prize for it’s subtle flavor.
(Hand) How is green garlic different than regular garlic? (Stelling) Well, it’s kind of the same thing only we harvest it when it’s so young before any cloves are formed. And it has a little bit milder taste, but it’s got a really flavorful, because it’s got a lot of oils in it right now, it’s got a really flavorful garlic taste to it.
Charlene Stelling with green garlic
(Hand) And it has less of a bite than regular garlic and it’s not quite as bitter, is that true, so for people who may not like garlic, this might be a nice introduction? (Stelling) Yes, it is milder, because of the oils it, it’s a little smoother taste, it doesn’t have that really quick bite to it. You can still taste the garlic, but it doesn’t stand out so much. You can eat it around your friends (laughing) . . .
(Hand) Charlene says they pick green garlic before it forms cloves and the papery membrane that separates those cloves. It looks like a green onion or a scallion. And like those, you can eat the whole thing.
Green garlic pesto made with green garlic leaves
(Stelling) You cut of the root and you use the whole rest of the garlic. (Hand) So you can use all the green leaves as well? (Stelling) Yes, it makes a very good pesto to put in your food processor with some pine nuts and olive oil and parmesan cheese and makes a very good pesto to put on fresh pasta.
(Hand) And what’s the season for green garlic generally, how much longer will it go? (Stelling) Well, we’ll probably have it until mid to late June. We start the first of April or mid April, when the market starts and we bring some every week.
Juicy, paperless bulb of green garlic before it forms cloves.
(Hand) Well let me ask you one last question. I think of you guys as kind of the garlic people because you have so many different varieties of garlic later in the season, what is it about garlic? (Stelling) We like to present something at the market that isn’t necessarily found elsewhere at the stores. (Hand) And I think that’s one of the great things about farmers’ markets is you can get things like green garlic that you couldn’t get at a normal supermarket. (Stelling) That’s true, I don’t know of anywhere that you could possibly by green garlic in the stores here, so it’s good you have a place you can come down and satisfy your garlic whims (laughing) . . . (Hand) good.
(Hand) Satisfying garlic whims at the the Capital City Public Market, I’m Guy Hand for Boise State Public Radio’s Market and Garden Report.
Here are a few articles on green garlic:
Kinder, gentler green garlic mellows out the menu
All About Green Garlic & Garlic Scapes
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Guy Hand is a writer, public radio producer and photographer specializing in food and agriculture. |
