Glorious Garlic

I love having lots of homegrown garlic on hand in the kitchen but growing it seems to be a bit of a hit and miss process. I harvested five or six lovely fat bulbs at the allotment this year, but the rest were all a bit small and weedy - useable, but not great. It was the same story with the bulbs I planted in the garden at home too. So this year I’m going to try a new variety from DT Brown, called Czechmate (shown in the photo above). It’s a hardneck garlic from the Czech Republic that’s said to have good rust resistance. The large, plump cloves are apparently tinged with purple, and have a round, strong flavour. Here’s hoping they do better than any of the others I’ve tried so far. I’ll let you know next year!

And talking of garlic, garlic chives are my new favourite thing to pick at the moment. They have the most beautiful flowers (see below) that appear in late August and go on through September - much later than all the other alliums, which makes them an even more welcome sight when they appear. They taste exactly like a cross between garlic and chives, but the leaves are flatter and wider than chives. The simple dressing below is a lovely way to use them.

It’s great on hot boiled potatoes, on grilled meat and, of course, drizzled onto a salad