Do you know what this is a photo of?
These are garlic bulbils or garlic flowers.They grow from the top of the stalk of the hard neck varieties of garlic.
They start off white and as they dry out they become more and more purple.Many farmers of hard neck garlic remove the bulbils as they are forming to promote the growth of the bulb below the ground. At Daylesford Organics we believe in allowing a plant to grow in its natural form so we leave the bulbils on the plant. Cutting them off is like cutting off its reproductive organs.
The advantage of not removing the bulbils is that we harvest them as well as the garlic cloves when they reach maturity.There are several things you can do with these flowers.
You can replant them. This is an economical way of building up your planting stock. It will take two years of replanting for the bulbs to reach a decent size. Alternately you could plant the bulbils in your herb garden and harvest them as spring garlic, like spring onions.
The other use for the bulbils is the one we are most excited about and that is to eat.Over the past few weeks we have been sprinkling these gorgeous seeds on salads, bruchettas, stir fries and eggs.
They look gorgeous as a garnish, they give that delicious garlic kick and all without the bother of having to peel them or prepare them in any way.
Can you tell we are excited!!
If you buy some garlic bulbils from us over the next few weeks, we would love you to share your own personal bulbil recipe with us. Please leave a comment on this blog or email us at kate@daylesfordorganics.com
See ya.
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9 comments:
It is making me now wish I had eggs for breakfast. They sound like a great idea to use!
Loved reading this post, and finding out a bit more about garlic. The bulbs are sooo pretty too.
I love how you guys do things your own way.
xo
Damn it, now I want eggs and bulbils too... Interesting to read about them. I hope lots of people buy them off you. (The colour of those eggs are such a glorious yellow too.)
Ah! there's an old Italian guy at my local organic market that sells the bulbils. Up until a few weeks ago I didnt know what they were.
Perhaps I can pesuade him to leave his in place too & use them as you do. I'll be trying them out too!
I popped in and bought some of your delicious garlic from farmer Bren last week and I munched on some of the little seed heads. When I got home I cooked up a delicious chicken and freshly dug potato dish with them. I have re-named them garlic jewels. I'm going to blog the recipe tomorrow, so I will send you the link a soon as it's done!
AS promised, link top my blog featuring your garlic and bulbils!
http://tinyurl.com/4pr8utt
We had our first real harvest of garlic this year (home garden only) and I figured that the flowers should be producing something that could be planted to give new life. Thanks for answering this question. I have to admit to squashing a few just to sniff the garlic scent.
Ours get saved for the next years seed trays, but if I had more like you guys doo then I'd eat them too!
Hey do you need some pest control at your place?
I was just hunting through Peters seed stash looking for some corriander seeds and found a container of these - will try them on my eggs next time!
They are so pretty too :)
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