Honey Garlic

This humble, dirty head of garlic is amazing. It's an Asiatic varietal called 'Japanese,' with at most 5 cloves per head and creamy yellow flesh. I harvested nine plants yesterday at the beach farm, nine plants which were given to me for free because other cultivars I purchased were quite small. These too were small, but I'm so glad that they sent them. Ahead of my satisfaction, I ordered a good quantity (although sale quantities are limited by most farmers) for next year's crop. It will take a few years to get these up to good numbers.

One head detached from its stem at harvest and was grilled. The cloves will begin to bubble through the skin -that's when you know they are ready. Grilled garlic has the consistency of a baked potato, but the flavor and sweetness are completely different. And this garlic, this garlic, tasted, to my palette and those I shared with, like clover honey! A distinct floral note above the starchy sweetness. I was blown away.

I highly doubt that this cultivar would produce the same after curing and I suspect it would be robustly garlic-flavored. But green, fresh from the ground, unbelievably like honey.