Garlic

Just had the first 'green' garlic this year, grown from cloves that got left in the ground when harvesting last year's crop, now only about 20 - 25mm diameter and are rounds (not divided into cloves). Made into soup with 'volunteer' potatoes, it was extremely garlicky - I could smell it as soon as I opened the front door.

 

My Autumn planted hardneck garlic 'Music' are now getting over 4 foot high:

 

The 'flower heads' (they don't produce seeds - garlic aren't interested in sex) of hardneck garlic should start appearing about now and need to be removed to get the best size bulbs/cloves. If you leave them until they coiled up before cutting them off you'll get a bonus crop of garlicky scapes to eat (not the flower bit). They freeze well.

I've read that if you leave one scape on for each variety you're growing you can tell when they're ready to lift when the scape straightens out, but have never got round to trying it out. One of last years pickings:

 

Hiya Scrunge.

I found that the scapes had a really nice mild flavour, and could even be eaten raw. However, I found that if left too long before harvesting, they tended to go tough. If I recall correctly, they should only be allowed to coil once?

Cheers...Freddy