I am thrilled to say that my new book has been released and is in bookshops and can be purchased online from my website shop . If you would like your copy signed to a specific person, then send me an email through the contact page. I’ll be talking about garlic and the book on radio over the coming weeks and there will be reviews in newspapers and magazines, so keep an eye out for them.

The book has taken me three years to write, but has been much longer in it’s gestation. It covers everything from more than 50 different cultivars of garlic, to 
guidelines for growing organic garlic around the country as well as interviews with
 twelve Australian garlic growers telling you how and where they grow their garlic.
 There are also recipes for cooking, preserving and smoking garlic and even making your own black garlic as well as medicinal uses and an extensive list of growers and suppliers.

This book starts to make sense of the confusion surrounding garlic and explains that garlic is not just garlic, it is Creole, Rocambole, Purple Stripe, Turban, Silverskin and more.

These are a couple of short extracts from the book, starting with Garlic ThoughtsPushing my fingers into the soil I pull back the dirt and feel the surface of the hidden bulb. The cloves are well-formed, so I know it is ready to harvest. I slide the fork underneath and unearth this compact, beautiful parcel of close-fitting packages of sweet, nutty, biting perfection. I know that in a few weeks, like unwrapping a birthday present, I will split open the papery white skins to reveal the glossy red cloves inside. And when these skins are removed they’ll release the creamy white flesh of odiferous wonder. A chemical miracle, thousands of years old. It has such an impact on all our culinary adventures and increasing importance in maintaining good health. Is it any wonder that garlic is my favourite edible plant?

And this is from the chapter on Growing Garlic

Insects and bees love the nectar in elephant garlic flowers

Elephant garlic, also commonly called Russian garlic,  is occasionally found listed in seed and bulb catologues and seed saver lists. In some regions it is found naturalised on old house sites and it is a welcome, or sometimes, unwelcome inhabitant of many suburban gardens – but it is not garlic.
So what is it? Its botanical name is Allium ampeloprasum (Ampeloprasum Group) ‘Elephant Garlic’ and it is actually a close relative of the leek, A. ampeloprasum (Porrum Group). It is only more distantly related to true garlic (A. sativum). Other common names are giant garlic, great-headed garlic, Levant garlic, Yorktown onion, and in French, ail d’orient, and German, pferdknoblauch.

A. ampeloprasum is the wild plant from which both elephant garlic and leeks are derived. It is native to Southern Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor and parts of Russia, where it grows on dry, rocky or sandy ground and near cultivated land. The specific name ampeloprasum comes from the Greek words ampelos and prason which mean a vine and leek respectively, signifying that this leek-like plant grew among grape vines. They may have self-sown from the wild, or perhaps they were an early attempt at companion planting. Allium species have been used for centuries to protect more tender plants from hungry insects. Elephant garlic bulbs have been collected from the wild and from gardens for many centuries. A wild English variety is often found in places associated with early Christian sites and may have originally been cultivated by the monks who lived there.

The flower with the remnant spathe to the left.

The giant bulbs, cloves and strong stems.

Elephant garlic looks superficially like a giant form of garlic, hence the name. The leaves are large, blue-green and linear with a central dividing rib. In early or mid-summer, from the centre of the leaves, a solid, cylindrical flower stalk grows to a height of a tall man. Flower heads, only slightly smaller than soccer balls, form singly at the top of the flower stalks in spring and summer. These flower heads are covered by a single long-beaked spathe which resembles a swan’s head and splits to reveal the densely-packed pink or mauve flowers. Both the flower buds and heads look dramatic at the back of a mixed border.

Elephant garlic is grown from cloves or rounds planted in autumn, winter and spring in mild climates, or autumn and spring in cool climates. Plant the cloves and rounds blunt or root ends down about 30 centimetres apart. The tops of the bulbs should be about 5 centimetres below the soil surface. Plants do best in a rich, deeply cultivated bed and like full sun and well-drained soil, but they are very hardy and really need no special treatment. Regular harvesting and/or confinement to a definite bed ensures that elephant garlic will not become a weed. It grows from the tropics to temperate Australia and tends to grow taller and to have a stronger flavour in cooler regions.
Elephant garlic bulbs form under the soil, can reach 10 centimetres in diameter and consist of 3 to 6 large cloves. External to these cloves are anything from one to twenty small bulblets, up to one centimetre across, with a flat side. Plants that do not flower often form a single, large, symmetrical clove, also known as a round, up to 4 centimetres in diameter, rather than a bulb. Plants grown from rounds or from very large cloves, frequently produce a large bulb with several cloves and a flower stalk. Plants grown from a smaller clove or from a bulblet usually produce a round and no flower stalk. So elephant garlic tends to alternate between the production of cloves and the production of rounds, and to go to seed only every second year. A well established clump will usually have a mixture of bulbs with cloves and rounds, so there will always be some flower heads.
Bulbs are harvested when the flowers begin to dry out. The whole plant is dug and the bulbs hung to dry with part of the stem attached, in a shady but dry position. Flower heads with stalks are hung in bunches in a similar position.

Elephant garlic rounds

Elephant garlic has a mild, sweet flavour somewhere between garlic and onion. Cloves and rounds are large and easy to peel. They can be eaten raw, sliced into salads or, steamed or boiled as a vegetable with or without a sauce. They can also be cooked like onions in soups, stews or casseroles, or baked in the oven with roasts. Where a true, pungent garlic flavour is needed only true garlic (A. sativum) should be used. Elephant garlic bulbs are high in vitamins A, C and E and are a healthy addition to any diet. Slice young leaves and add to salads or use as a garnish. Feed bulbs and leaves to stock or add them to mash for chickens. The garlic flavour can be transferred to the meat and eggs – perhaps a bonus for the meat, but a pavlova made from garlic flavoured eggs might not impress the guests.
Flowers, fresh or dried, make an interesting addition to flower arrangements because of their striking appearance. The strong odour can be overpowering when fresh but this disappears after about three months. Elephant garlic can also be planted at the back of rose borders or near climbing roses to help keep aphids and other pests at bay.

This plant has much to recommend it. It is hardy and easy to grow, it looks dramatic and has a multitude of uses in the kitchen. Elephant garlic may not be garlic but it deserves a place in the garden.

The dramatic flowers look good in flower arrangements

Turk's Turban, Delicata, Potimarron, Australian Butter, Buttercup and Bohemian are just a few of the heirloom varieties of pumpkins available to grow.

Heirloom varieties of squash, gourds and small pumpkins

At Petty’s Orchard they held the Heritage Apple Day with over 100 varieties of apples to try. From the beautiful sweet dessert apples like Cox’s Orange Pippen to the more tart but sublime when cooked Edward VII (a late season English cooking apple first recorded in 1902) , and even cider apples like Dabinett, an old Somerset cider apple producing bittersweet cider.

Such a rich panoply of tastes and textures, colours and scents. So much to loose if we don’t make an effort to preserve our heritage of varieties. So what can we all do? It’s pretty simple really, support the organizations and companies that sell these precious seed and grow unusual varieties of vegetables and fruit. Grow these vegetables and harvest and store our own seed, that way we help to preserve genetic diversity for future generations. Volunteer for the organizations that keep these fruit going, like the Heritage Fruits Society — PW

Scarlet Stymared

Sweet Coppin

Garlic 'New Zealand Purple' is a more cold tolerant variety

Now is the time to plant garlic. Don’ t wait until the shortest day as this is generally too late. Anytime from now until the end of May is fine.
I am planting some early garlic now, and in another month some of my home-grown from last year and a month after that some more. I want to make sure that I have my own fresh garlic available all year round.

Why grow your own?
— We are all used to the idea that tomatoes eaten straight from the garden taste so much better than the supermarket variety. Well the same is true for garlic.
— Garlic is easy to grow and takes up very little space.
— All imported garlic is sprayed with methyl bromide when it comes into Australia, not only does methyl bromide deplete ozone, but it is also harmful to humans. As well as this, much of our imported garlic comes from China where pesticides are routinely used, and only 5% of vegetables imported from China are checked for chemical residue.

Preparation
Choose a spot that gets plenty of sun and prepare the soil by adding well-rotted manure and some blood and bone and compost. Garlic hates growing in soggy soil, so make sure the soil is well-drained. If the drainage is not good then create a raised mound and plant the cloves into this.

Some of the garlic bulb varieties I am planting

Which garlic?
Most garlic that you find in supermarkets has also been sprayed with sprout inhibitors so that they don’t sprout during storage. This means that they sprout at the wrong time of the year (usually spring) when it is too late to plant them. So buy organic garlic from you local green grocer or buy it from a reputable seed supplier. This year both Diggers and Green Harvest are selling a good range of organic garlic. Garlic does best in the southern states. Like onions, garlic bulbs begin to swell as day length increases, this means that many garlic varieties are not suitable for warmer regions like Northern NSW and Queensland. One day length neutral variety that does well in these regions is Glenn large or Southern Glenn.
Most varieties fall into two groups, hard neck or soft neck. The hard neck varieties have a central stem that produces a flower head. This flower head contains bulbils, not flowers. Hard neck types have larger, but fewer, cloves per head, are easier to peel but don’t keep for as long (about 4 months) as soft neck types. Soft neck types do not produce a flower stem and have smaller but more numerous cloves. Bulbs keep for about seven months.

I use a 'dibber' to make the hole for the garlic clove.

Plant the clove pointy end up.

Plant garlic well below the surface of the soil

Planting
Make holes in the soil about 15cm apart. I like to use the dibber that I use to plant bulbs, but your finger or a small trowel will do. Break the bulb into the individual cloves, do not remove the skin from the clove, and plant with the pointy end up so that the top of the clove is the length of the clove under the soil. Cover with dirt and water well, but don’t water again until the cloves have started growing otherwise they may rot in the soil. When the green leaves are well above the soil, mulch with pea straw, lucerne hay or sugar cane mulch.

Now sit back and let them grow, just checking occasionally to make sure they are growing strongly.
I will write again in a few months to tell you about what happens next. If you want to know more about garlic, how to cook with it and it’s fascinating history as well as other Allium plants like onions, shallots and leeks you could purchase my book Garlic and friends from the shop.

The following recipe, one of my favourites, comes from Garlic and friends

Baked Chicken with Forty Garlic Cloves

I large fresh chicken
salt and freshly ground black pepper
small bunch of herbs — lemon thyme, parsley, bay leaf, sage and French tarragon
40 unpeeled cloves of garlic
half a cup of olive oil
I cup of flour mixed to a thick paste with a quarter cup of water
crusty fresh bread

Remove the giblets, neck and any excess fat from the chicken. Rub the salt and pepper on the inside and outside. Place the bunch of herbs and four cloves of garlic inside the chicken. Into a casserole dish just big enough to hold the chicken, pour the oil and spread the rest of the garlic cloves evenly ove the bottom. Gently heat the oil and then put the chicken into the dish, turning it so that it is coated with oil. Put the lid on the casserole dish and seal it to the base with the flour and water mixture.
Place in a pre-heated, moderate oven and cook for one and a half hours. Remove from the oven and open the dish by breaking the crust. Carve the chicken and serve with the juices, the baked cloves of garlic and some crusty bread. The soft, sweet flesh of the garlic cloves is simply eaten by squeezing it out of the skin. It has a delicious nutty flavour.

Serves 4

Hard neck garlic 'Mammoth Purple' has large succulent cloves