It-Tewm (Garlic)
Many people grow garlic themselves - it's easy and fun, even if you're not usually much of a gardener. You also get to the reward of eating your home-grown garlic crop!
Garlic is a member of the allium family which also includes leeks, shallots and onions. Individual cloves act as seeds. The bulbs grow underground and the leaves shoot in to the air. Although garlic is traditionally thought of as a Mediterranean ingredient garlic is also grown successfully in colder more Northern climates.
Garlic is grown from the individual cloves. Each clove will produce one plant with a single bulb - which may in turn contain up to twenty cloves. Growing garlic is therefore self-sustaining.
When planting garlic, choose a garden site that gets plenty of sun and where the soil is not too damp. The cloves should be planted individually, upright and about an inch (25 mm) under the surface. Plant the cloves about 4 inches (100 mm) apart. Rows should be about 18 inches (450 mm) apart. It is traditional to plant garlic on the shortest day of the year. Whether this is for symbolic or practical reasons is unclear. See the dedicated sowing page for advice on when to plant garlic. Garlic is a very friendly plant and grows well planted with other flowers and vegetables. For more information on how to grow garlic with other plants, see the page on co-planting garlic. Although garlic can protect other plants growing nearby against many ailments, there are some it is prone to. See the garlic diseases page for an overview of some of the most common. Garlic is also prone to a few pests. Harvesting Your Garlic Crop
As garlic reaches maturity, the leaves will brown then die away. This is the cue that it is time to harvest your garlic crop. If you harvest too early the cloves will be very small, too late and the bulb will have split.
Proper handling of garlic after it's been picked is almost as important as looking after it whilst it's growing. It's essential that garlic is dried properly, otherwise it will rot. The bulbs are often hung up in a cool, dry place. After a week or so, take them down and brush the dirt off gently - don't wash the bulbs at this stage. Then enjoy the delicious results of growing your own garlic in your own garden.
Spaghetti just seems lonely without garlic bread, and it's so easy to make. There are several methods and twists for making garlic bread, the most simple being just rubbing a cut clove of garlic over slices of Italian or French bread, spreading the bread with butter and heating in the oven. Here are a couple of methods that make wonderful garlic bread, depending on how you like it, either toasty or soft.
Garlic Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 16-ounce loaf of Italian bread or French bread
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 large cloves of garlic, smashed and minced
- 1 heaping tablespoon of freshly chopped parsley
- 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
Method
Method 1 - Toasted1 Preheat oven to 350°F.
2 Cut the bread in half, horizontally. Mix the butter, garlic, and parsley together in a small bowl. Spread butter mixture over the the two bread halves. Place on a sturdy baking pan (one that can handle high temperatures, not a cookie sheet) and heat in the oven for 10 minutes.
3 Remove pan from oven. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over bread if you want. Return to oven on the highest rack. Broil on high heat for 2-3 minutes until the edges of the bread begin to toast and the cheese (if you are using cheese) bubbles. Watch very carefully while broiling. The bread can easily go from un-toasted to burnt.
4 Remove from oven, let cool a minute. Remove from pan and make 1-inch thick slices. Serve immediately.
Method 2 - Soft
Preheat oven to 350°F. Make the butter, garlic, parsley mixture as above. Make 1-inch thick slices into the bread, but do not go all the way through, just to the bottom crust. Put a teaspoon or two of the butter mixture between each slice. Wrap the bread in aluminum foil and heat for 15 minutes in the oven.
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