Garlic is a fine measuring stick to tell you where we are in the season, since farmers have found ways to feed it to you for the entire year.
Sometime in May, we harvest ‘green garlic.‘ These are simply immature garlic plants we pluck from the ground when we can no longer wait for fresh garlic flavor. Like a leek or a scallion, you can trim off the very bottom and use most of the stem and tender leaves for any dish you’d like garlicked. Green garlic should be refrigerated for best storage and shelf life.
Next, in June we harvest garlic scapes. These are the whirling twirling curly-cue flowering stalks of the same garlic plants.

Removing them helps the plant focus more energy on making bigger cloves, and gives us another opportunity to harvest more delicious garlic flavor. Scapes should also be refrigerated and have a remarkably long shelf life in the crisper. They will last you until…
In early July, we harvest the garlic! When it is first picked from the ground, fresh garlic is so juicy and strong and flavorful. You will recognize these heads and cloves for sure. When cooking, you can use less garlic per recipe than you would if the garlic had been cured and stored. Fresh garlic should also be refrigerated but is also generally consumed so quickly it’s not an issue.

What we don’t eat fresh is laid out to cure, leavins us with plain ol’ delicious garlic for the rest of the year. The curing process produces those dry papery protective layers to store loads of garlic heads until we hit that spring garlic season once again!
Garlicky recipes :
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