German Red
Last updated on Jul 15, 2024 by Ben Ronniger
A rich, musky Rocambole Hardneck Garlic.
German Red came to this country along with German immigrants a long time ago and I doubt if anyone knows where in Germany it originated. It is a generally a vigorous grower with large foliage that is dark green and results in a pretty good sized bulb. Being a Rocambole garlic, its flavor is very strong, hot and spicy and sticks around for a long time. It seems to have an especially rich taste. From a growers perspective, it grows well in cold winter areas and usually grows healthy fairly uniform sized bulbs. It has thin bulb wrappers that have a lot of purple and brown in them.
German Red usually has anywhere from 8 or 9 easy to peel cloves that are of good size, with no smaller inner cloves. The outer bulb wrappers are thin and flake off easily so it is not a very good storer, but no Rocambole is. For those up north who want to grow their own garlic it only takes a year or two to grow all you can eat. It harvests in mid-season along with most of the other Rocamboles. Bulbs are usually over 2 1/2 inches in diameter and are of good size are grown primarily for their particularly rich flavor.
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