My Wild Garlic

[blueadzuki]

Well, I just harvested my annual crop of wild garlic (the kind I know I like to eat, as opposed to the expermental ones)

No, I don't know waht species it is. The person I bought it from at the farmers market just called it "wild garlic" (and he wasn't there this year, so I can't ask him if he knows the species name). For a while, I thought it might be prarie onion, as it has the fibrous outer coating to the bulb, but that makes flower and bulbils, and this makes bulbils only (as in I have NEVER seen flowers, on my own plants (and this is the second year I've grown them) or on any sold. bulbs are pea sized, single and sperical; division is very rare (and when it does happen it happens from the base, one bulb splits into two, there are no little "side bulbs). Taste is strongly garlicky (I've never actually eaten a bulb, as they were so expensive and divide so slowly I always needed 100% of the bulbs and bulbils to re plant (this is my whole years crop and there are maybe 1/3 1/2 as many bulbs as I originally planted and only a tiny number of bulbils) but at harvest time, I do get to eat the tops. ) So harvest over, time to cure the bulbs.

[12540dumont]

I hate it when I don't have enough to eat. Here says Leo, I'll cook one bean for you

[blueadzuki]

There are days that I think that whatever spirit governs the fertility of my land wasn't listenwn when someone tried to explain Ayrvedic Food Theory to them, and hence has decreed that the plants shall never PRODUCE more food than can be held in a cupped hand.
For comparision my domestic garlic, which I harvested last week (I needed the tops for some Fiorentino sauce. The bulbs of the whole pot worth fit comforably in an appetizer sized takeout contaner, and the LARGEST bulb I got is the size of a cherry (though to be fair to it, this is first year garlic so it's all rounds, which are always smaller than heads. And at least some of it is probably gentic, the heads some of them came from were pretty tiny to begin with)
On the other side, next year I add a new allium to the mix. duign one of my trips to the Organic market, I came away with whas has got to be the three hugest shallots I ever saw (they are the size of torpedo onions (and yes I am reasonably sure they are shallots, and not the aforementioned onions). Lets hope that it's genese can overwhem my enviorment (though I'm a little afraid to find out how big plants from shallots that size will get).

[paquebot]

You actually bought Allium vineale? That's considered a noxious weed in many parts of this continent. It's not native and is an invasive species with no natural enemies to control it. Not very welcome in most places that it has taken up residence. I'm still trying to kill the darned stuff off after starting some of their bulbils 10 years ago.

Martin

[blueadzuki]

Jun 16, 2012 0:18:01 GMT -5 paquebot said:

You actually bought Allium vineale? That's considered a noxious weed in many parts of this continent. It's not native and is an invasive species with no natural enemies to control it. Not very welcome in most places that it has taken up residence. I'm still trying to kill the darned stuff off after starting some of their bulbils 10 years ago.

Martin

No, This isn't vineale (though I can see where you might get that from the picture, it is a little overdark); we have that already, as a weed. There are an awful lot of allium species, and a LOT of them are referred to (and sold) as "wild garlic". This is much smaller musch shorter a much paler green (even in good sun) and the bulb construction is different.
That being said, I rather suspect that I DID end up buying vineale in another case, though not on purpose. One of the OTHER Garlics I had growing was something I had bought at the farmers market last year, which the seller had referred to as "mountain garlic" (or actually since they'd written it in spanish "ajo de montana") I rather suspect (now that I have grown and harvested it) that in fact THAT one may have been vineale. It has the same upright shape, the same tendency not to droop over and most importantly the same bulb construction; a largeish unshelled clove surruded by a handful of smaller, shelled ones. I think the farmer's market peson simpley walked into thier yard, harvested weeds and made up some B.S. to sell them as an unusual vegetable at premium prices. And stupid me fell for it.)
There is also the matter of my experimental garlic, which I collected wild. That one may also be a vineale, though if it is it's an odd one, as vineale normally don;t get bulbs much bigger than a hazelnut; the one I collected had a bulb the size of a normal domestic garlic (though with vineale construction) That's still in the pot I want it to get as mature as possilbe before I harvest it, to see if it 1. isn't vineale and 2. is something worth keeping.

[paquebot]

If it's not A. vineale, next candidate would be A. canadense which may be both cultivated in some places and a weed in others as well as being truly native.

Martin

[blueadzuki]

UPDATE

While harvesting the Rakkyo (Allium chinese) I found one mountain garlic plant I missed. As I was also harvesting the found wild garlic in the next pot (though i left the two biggest where they were, as they were making scapes) I put the two side by side. They are identical. So whatever one is the other is. Which probably means my "found wild garlic) is just a vineale. Maybe if you leave it in one place long enough it actally CAN get that big.