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[ Silverskin (Softneck) Garlics ]
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The Creole Garlics
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NEW! - February 26, 2010 - We now include an online garlic gardeners market where you buy direct from each market gardener - just like at your local farmers market. |
They are downright gorgeous to look at and are one of the easiest eating raw garlics owing to a taste that is full but pleasantly warm rather than hot. They retain their flavor well when cooked. They have eight to twelve cloves per bulb arranged in a circular configuration. While the bulb wrappers are very white, the clove covers vary from a beautiful red rose color to dark purple and present a spectacular appearance. I regard them to be at least as beautiful as the porcelain garlics even though their configuration is very different, their colors are breathtaking.
Creoles are easily grown in southern climates and are much more tolerant of adverse weather conditions than most garlics. Creoles are not large garlics but they're hardy survivors and can grow where many other kinds can't. They are ideal for California and the warm winter west coast as well as Texas and the Old South.
This years story about our Creole garlics bears retelling. Over the years we have become one of the few sources of the rare and expensive Creole garlics because they grow better in the warm winter areas than they do in the colder North. We have slowly increased our holdings in these rare garlics which were developed in Spain and southern France over the centuries, rather than Italy or elsewhere; they were different altogether and they came in with the Spanish Conquistadores in the 1500s, hence the name Creole, which relates to the Carribbean.
As explained in earlier parts of our newsletter, we hit 100 degrees on April 15, badly stunting our crop of rare Creoles and a few Artichokes. Our bulbs wound up being about 1/3 to 1/4 their usual size but almost all survived. We had accepted about a hundred orders of Creoles in anticipation of our usual large crop and offered our customers an opportunity to cancel. Almost all said to go ahead and send those hardy little survivors, we want them anyway. They got a pretty good bargain because there were 2-3 times more bulbs in a pound this way and if you plant them early and leave them in the ground and extra week or two, they'll size back up in a couple of years and they'll have a lot more then. Everyone won. I still have some pretty good planting stock and will expect to have a much better crop in this El Nino year.
It is my intention to cultivate an interest in people all across the Gulf coast, especially Louisiana and get them to grow these wonderful garlics not only for personal use but for profit as part of an economic rebirth in a area that sorely needs it. Why grow something that sells for $2/lb when with only a little extra effort you can grow something that sells for five to ten times that and have people lining up to buy it? I think that once some of those New Orleans chefs find out about these Creole garlics, they will create an even greater demand for them and people will have yet another reason to come to Louisiana and plan on spending some extra money on something they really like.
I also think that in the future the Creole garlics, currently almost unheard of in Louisiana, will become a very big part of Creole cooking and cuisine and part of the uniqueness of it all. Are you listening, Chef Emeril and all the other New Orleans chefs? Your future is calling. Creoles are among the rarest and most expensive of garlics and with the name of Creole, where but Louisiana would you expect them? The name might make you think they're grown there but they are not, it's just their name. If I do my job, they'll eventually be growing in profusion there and providing more economic opportunity for many as well as some great eating that you won't forget anytime soon.
We feel very fortunate to have any of these extremely rare treasures at all. Creoles are among the scarcest of all garlics.
Their scarcity will continue as our 2006 crop of Creoles was adversely affected by an early heat wave that gave us 100 degree temps in mid-April followed by an invasion of grasshoppers. This caused early maturity before the bulbs had grown to good size, resulting in smaller than usual Creole bulbs for most cultivars, although Creole Red did better than the others. If these are planted a little earlier than usual and harvested a little later than usual, they will size up nicely in a couple of years. Creoles are very hardy garlics and store a long time, too. Their rich flavor makes them worth the effort.
Creoles are very rare garlics and we have sometimes had to ship smaller than preferred sizes because small Creoles are better than no Creoles. We have saved the biggest and best for replanting and expect to have at least some good large Creole garlics, mostly Burgundy again in 2007 and beyond.
The Creole Garlics of the South of France.
We had added the delightful garlics from the South of France to our collection but now will no longer be available this year . In the past we have had some of the rich tasting Rose du Lautrec and the pleasantly mild Germinador that we hope to be able to make available by the pound someday along with some Thermadrone (an Artichoke garlic) and Rose du Var (Silverskin).
Sorry, friends, in 2007 weather-related crop losses have wiped out our French Germinador garlic and we will no longer have them for sale but we hope to someday again grow them but we will have to find some seed stock sources first. The good news is that the Rose du Lautrec is surviving nicely and we may be able to include some of them in assortments this year. The weather has been pretty weird around here since the turn into the 21st century, alternating between drought and flooding but still our Creoles find some way to survive.
Another bit of good news, I found a few Guatemalan Creoles and I hope to start selling them in a year or two. They are similar to Creole Red and were grown in a hot, humid country.
When using your credit/debit card to buy direct from different gardeners, a separate order is required for each gardener.
You may buy as many different kinds of garlic as you want from any gardener on any order but each grower requires a separate order.
If you want to order garlic from more than one grower, a seperate order must be placed with each gardener.
If you buy from a gardener and later cancel that order, the credit card processing gateway still charges Gourmet Garlic Gardens the full processing
fee plus an additional fee for processing the cancellation and also it places an additional clerical burden on us
so, regretably, we must charge a 10% cancellation fee when processing the cancellation because that's about what it costs us.
My advice is to look around among the various market gardeners and decide what to buy from whom and then
place your orders and stick with the gardeners you have chosen.
If you would like to try a little garlic from several different gardeners, you can order a sampler assortment and request particular garlics from specific growers. Click here to check out our sampler Assortments.
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How Our Garlics are Grown
Some of our growers are Certified Organic and some are Certified Naturally Grown, which we regard as equal to Certified Organic in every meaningful way but without all the bureaucratic rigamarole. All our market gardeners grow organically/sustainably but not all want to be certified and are among the best available sources of sustainable/organic Garlic We do not allow growers who use synthetic petroleum-based fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides or herbacides to participate in our farmers market.
All garlic in our farmers market is grown in the USA, no imports allowed.
This farmers market is strictly for small-scale American market gardeners/growers who live and grow sustainably..
Burgundy - A mild Creole garlic.
Harvests mid-late season - stores 7-8 months.
- Available only in limited quantity - Ask for it in Sampler Assortments. -
After ordering, use your back arrow key to return to this point, otherwise the secure shopping cart will return you to our home page.-- Available only in limited quantity - Ask for it in Sampler Assortments. --
Burgundy is as beautiful a garlic as the name implies. The Creole group may well be the most beautiful of all garlics for more than one reason. It was hard to believe Creoles were silverskins as they don't resemble any other silverskins in any way. Botanists assured us; however, that they were genetically silverskins, but it turns out not to be so. They are in an class all of their own and it shows. If I have a personal favorite garlic, this one is it. I love so many of them it is hard to pick a single one, but I could not leave these beauties off any list of favorites. They look almost too pretty to eat-until you try one, then you realize they're too beautiful not to eat.
The bulb wrappers have a lovely deep rose color to them and the more layers you peel off, the prettier they get. When you finally get down to the cloves, which are arranged in circular fashion around the center, much like rocamboles, the clove covers are almost red with delicate burgundy colored vertical streaks. They look more like flowers than garlic and are so perfectly arrayed that you are reluctant to pull off a clove and disturb the symmetry of it all. You almost feel as though you are violating it. But you have to taste test it so you pull off a clove and peel its cover off and take that first bite almost with a feeling of regret and apologizing to it for doing such violence to it. You bite off the upper half of the naked clove and fall in love with it as it tastes every bit as good as it looks. Burgundy has a wonderfully mild, yet full flavor with only moderate heat. In my view, it is one of the best of all garlics for enjoyable raw eating. It is so good that you eagerly rip off another clove and dig in without apology (Once is never enough with a garlic like this.)
Burgundy is about the size of the average silverskin and stores just as clean and firm almost as long, but not quite. Burgundy tends to grow clean also and seems almost immune to some of the problems that can plague some of the other varieties. That may be because Burgundy grows better in warmer climates than many kinds of garlic. Not all cultivars are well suited to growing in mild winter and warm to hot spring climates but the Creole garlics do very well here in central Texas and other warmer climates. The excellent condition of our original seedstock that we got from Filaree Farms in Washington implies that it does pretty good in the cold areas also. You might want to buy a handful of these garlics even if you hate garlic; they make a fabulous centerpiece for the festive table.
Ajo Rojo - A stronger Creole Garlic
Harvests mid-late season - stores 7-8 months.
- Available only in limited quantity - Ask for it in Sampler Assortments. -
After ordering, use your back arrow key to return to this point, otherwise the secure shopping cart will return you to our home page.- Available only in limited quantity - Ask for it in Sampler Assortments. -
Ajo Rojo is almost red, whereas Burgundy is almost purple. Everything else I just said about Burgundy applies to Ajo Rojo except that Ajo Rojo is usually more more pungent than Burgundy although some years it can be milder, depending on weather. The only other difference I can tell between them is that Ajo Rojo has bulb wrappers that are a little thicker and it seems to want to sprout and go back into the ground just a little earlier than Burgundy, so it doesn't seem to store quite as long but is just as clean. That is a little surprising as I would think that with thicker bulb wrappers it would store longer. That may be an aberration as the two were grown in different gardens with different types of soils and that may have made a difference. We'll continue to experiment with it and change our description if we get different experience next year.
Follow-up Report - It seems to depend on the weather. Some years Ajo Rojo will out-perform Burgundy and grow better and store longer. They seem to react a little differently to adverse weather and make a good combination to grow. Both varieties endure early season high heat and drought better than the average garlic. They were once called "Southern Continentals" for just this reason.
Creole Red - A Rich Medium Creole garlic.
-- Creole Red will be available only in Sampler Assortments this year. --
After ordering, use your back arrow key to return to this point, otherwise the secure shopping cart will return you to our home page.-- Creole Red will be available only in Sampler Assortments this year. --
Creole Red is distinctively different from Burgundy and Ajo Rojo in that it has fewer cloves per bulb some years (although the 2005 crop averages 8-9 cloves per bulb). In the number of cloves, Creole Red is sometimes similar to the marbled purple stripes like Metechi and Siberian, but smaller and more intensely colored or Porcelain garlics with vibrant colors. They are striking to look at. As its name might imply, it grows quite well in southern climates.
Creole Red has a robust and rich flavor that seems very deep and earthy and yet with enough pungency to let you know you're eating a real garlic but not so hot as to be painful. In a normal year I would say the flavor is about an 8 on a scale of 10 and the hotness rates about a 6. Creole Red is an excellent all-around garlic for raw or cooked use and stores well.
- May be Available in 2009 But Only in Sampler Assortments. -
Cuban Purple in most years is the darkest of the Creole garlics, being a distinctly purple color that can be almost a dusty blackish color at times. This year it is dark, but not that dark. Cuban Purple is very consistent in size in that most of the bulbs will be of similar size with few extra large or extra small bulbs (commercial growers like that). Some years it will, like Creole Red, have only 4-6 very large dark purple cloves.
TASTE = WOW! - Cuban Purple for 2005 has a very rich, earthy garlicky flavor with very little pungency (hotness when raw) and that makes it an excellent garlic for raw eating and in pesto, salsa, etc. A hardy garlic that is great for growing in Florida and all along the Gulf Coast - California, too.
Germinador -- A mild French Creole. --
-- Sorry, Not Available this year. --
Germinador is a wonderful Creole garlic from the South of France. Germinador is nicely flavorful but has little or no pungency and so makes a delightful garlic for raw eating for those who love flavor but don't like hotness. Germinador is very impressively the longest storing of all the Creoles and Creoles are longer storing garlics than most. They're not very large garlics, but their flavor and long shelf life make them very much worth growing. Being a French Creole that is usually mild may make it an excellent garlic for French cuisine for those who want to cook with authentic ingredients.
It's difficult to describe its taste particularly since taste varies every year with weather and other growing conditions, but when I taste tested it, Germinador was so mild it was nearly bland and reminded me more of water chestnuts than garlic, but there was a subtle aura of garlic about the taste. Next year the taste may be stronger.
Rose du Lautrec --A Unique and Robust French Creole.--
- Rose du Lautrec May be Available in 2009 but probably only in Sampler Assortments. --
Many Americans who travel to the South of France for the cuisine fall in love with a beautiful garlic there called Rose du Lautrec and to their regret, they cannot find it when they return to the USA. Friends, we finally have some Rose du Lautrec and expect to have even more next year. Rose du Lautrec is a beautiful Creole that is almost as long storing as its fellow French Creole, Germinador but has a much more robust flavor.
Rose du Lautrec has a very unique flavor, I don't think I've ever tasted one quite like it. It has a modest amount of pungency, perhaps 3 or 4 on a scale of 10, so it is a warm garlic but not a hot one. Its flavor is what separates it from the others; It has a deep sort of muskiness but with an influence of dijon mustard or a hint of horseradish. It left me with the impression of a flat, wide yet deep flavor quite unlike any other garlic. One of these days, I have to see what it is like cooked. So many garlics, So little time...
Labera Purple - May be Available in 2009 But Only in Sampler Assortments. -
Pescadero Red (Fisherman's garlic) - May be Available in 2009 But Only in Sampler Assortments. -
Spanish Benitee -- Sorry, Not Available this year.--
Spanish Morado -- Sorry, Not Available this year.--
Morado Gigante --Not Available this year - Maybe next year.--
That about completes our selection of Creoles for
this season although we will probably have more of the above mentioned varieties in the next year or two as well as some other Creoles we are now growing.
If we have some available, we'll put in detailed descriptions of them.
Readers who have been with us for a while will remember we are in the process of rebuilding our collection of garlics after a series of weather disasters that occurred as
the Landlady kicked open the gates to the 21st century rather violently. This is the first year we have had a good selection of Creole garlics in years and they look great - of good size and clean.
The first few years we had fabulous crops, but the past few years we have survived having no rain at all during the winter coupled with strong winds that
blew for eight months without letup. Combine that with temperatures
that alternated between the low teens and the high nineties in February
and you have a recipe for disaster. The drought was relieved
by a tornado with softball or cantalope size hail followed by heat waves and our harvests were over before they began.
We have had 2 crops flooded and three now that have been eaten by plagues of grasshoppers. Yet, still we persist because we know our generous hostess will give us more good crops, too, in the fullness of time.
It has taken us a few years to rebuild our collection of Creoles. The Creoles have survived everything since the tornado of 2000 and finally we have a decent crop again.
Next year it should be even bigger and better, that is, if it pleases the landlady, Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Nature.
We have no doubt who is in charge out here.
How Our Garlics are Grown
Usually our garlic is grown near Brownwood in central Texas. We live on a working cattle ranch and have several old family garden plots where our garlic is grown without the use of any toxic chemical pesticides or herbicides and in rotation with vegetables we grow for family use and sometimes the local farmers markets. Soon, we will devote more acreage for growing garlic in rotation with other crops.
This year we will offer some of the garlic we have grown (mostly for warm winter area gardeners) and also other sustainable and organic growers have made their finest produce available for us to sell. They all know to send me only their best, because I will neither buy nor sell any lesser quality garlic. Besides, I pay these growers their price and they are rightfully proud of their garlic. Those I continue to be impressed with are the ones I buy from. If our garlic isn't the best in the country, I'd like to find out what is, 'cause I would like to buy some of it.
Most of our growers are Certified Organic (all are organic but not all want to be certified) and are among the best available sources of Certified Organic Garlic
and we will happily fill your order with garlic from them at no extra cost if you ask for Certified Organic.
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[ Our Home Page ] [ Online Catalog ] [ Garlic Overview ] [ 40 Varieties ] [ Growing Garlic ] [ Cooking with Garlic ] [ Chemistry of Garlic ] [ Garlic Pills & Oils, Etc. ] [ Health Benefits ] [ Links ] [ FA's ] [ How to Order Garlic ]
[ Sampler Assortments ]
[ Pickling & Preserving Garlic ]
[ Artichoke (Softneck) Garlics ]
[ Asiatic Garlics ]
[ Creole Garlics ]
[ Porcelain Garlics ]
[ Purple Stripe Garlics ]
[ Rocambole Garlics ]
[ Silverskin (Softneck) Garlics ]
Our site is always under construction. --This page last updated February 26, 2010.
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