We've had this fresh garlic hanging near the clotheslines for a few weeks already. For a short period of time, late winter, early spring it's sold in the Israeli markets, like Jerusalem's Machane Yehuda. There's a strong garlicky smell permeating and dominating the air at the shuk and on the buses full of shoppers. Considering that I didn't grow up eating and cooking fresh garlic, it took us a few years until we bought our first bunch. It lasted us a long time, months and months. Now we use it up very, very quickly and then have to buy that awful imported garlic.
It would be nice to grow our own, but we've never succeeded.
Mmm... green garlic; we should have that here soon, too. It's usually my first farmers' market purchase of the year.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, most of our area is amazing garlic-growing land & climate, but still, all you can get in the supermarkets is the Chinese stuff.
I have two in the backyard and planted another 10 in pots yesterday, but that is a drop in the bucket of the amount of garlic our family goes through each year.
I'd love to grow it. Does it need lots of water, sun etc?
ReplyDeleteShalom!
ReplyDeleteFresh garlic is one of the reasons my husband gets excited about Pesah. (I like garlic. He gets excited about it.) Every year our first fresh garlic purchase is for Pesah. Interesting timing. Isn't garlic one of the foods for which our ancestors wanted to return to Egypt?
Garlic has a very short harvesting season, so it's a good thing it stores well. I would hate to have garlic only a month or so out of the year.
Shalom!
ReplyDeleteBatya, you inspired me to do a quick Google search. Perhaps we'll plant in the backyard. We're not going to be planting grass because of the drought.
http://gardening.about.com/od/vegetablepatch/a/GrowGarlic_2.htm
"Garlic is one of the easiest plants to grow," is the opening sentence. I like opening sentences like that.
And here's a video in Hebrew for local advice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drfiwlLVcA0
Hadassa, sounds like fun. If you get a bumper crop, now you know what to give me as a present, besides your gorgeous earrings. Do you still have time for that?
ReplyDeleteShalom!
ReplyDeleteSure do! Jewelry is my creative outlet, along with writing. I can neither give as gifts nor sell my writing, so now that Devora is a few months old I've picked up speed with the beads and wire twisting. You haven't seen the wire twisting yet - it's a lot of fun.
Sounds like fun. I need a new creative/artistic hobby. I have too many hats already. I wish I could sew, but my sewing machine died twenty years ago, and I really don't feel like investing in one. Also sewing means being in another room, less "social" than crocheting.
ReplyDelete