Garlic Vallelado
Grow your own garlic and you can enjoy it 'green'. Sounds odd, but it means picking and cooking the garlic before it's had a chance to dry out. The flavour's absolutely delicious - sweeter and milder than the dried garlic that's commonly available.
Garlic's very easy to grow. Plant cloves in the autumn, and by the time summer arrives each one will have transformed into a new bulb.
Time from seed to plate: 32 weeks
Sowing Calendar
Sow
Vallelado needs to be sown between October and December. This gives the plants plenty of time to establish themselves through the colder months. When the warmer spring weather arrives the plant will put on a surge of growth and the single bulb (like an onion) that formed during the winter will separate out into individual cloves ready for harvest.
To sow, break up each bulb and lay cloves out on the soil leaving 6in between them, and rows 12in apart. Push them in so the top's at least an inch from the surface of the soil. Firm well to stop birds pulling them out.
Grow
Keep free of weeds, that's all.
Harvest
Start harvesting your Garlic between June and August when the leaves start to turn yellow. Pick them as you need them.
If there are any left by mid-August dig them up for drying. Choose a sunny day so the plants aren't damp, and leave them laid out on the ground for a few days to dry out a bit more. Don't cut off the leaves because these can be used to create a plait.
To make a plait, wait till the plants have dried out then moisten the leaves a little by spraying with water till they're supple. Start off a plait using three garlic, adding extra ones in as you go up. Tie together at the top with some string and hang somewhere dry and warm so nothing rots.