Leningrad

Ben Ronniger Last updated on Jul 15, 2024 by

Harvests in midsummer - stores into mid-spring

A very rich, hot, strong Porcelain garlic with a taste you can't forget.

Leningrad grows well in most states even in warm winter areas but will be marginal at best along the gulf coast and South California. 

Leningrad is so beautiful it could only have been designed by a artist. It has thick white luxuriant bulb wrappers which peel away to reveal beautiful purple clove covers with elongated tips almost like a Purple Stripe garlic. Even with all its eye appeal, it is the taste of Leningrad that you remember. Its flavor starts off mild and becomes very strong and robust and sticks around for a long time. I seldom get this excited about a garlic I have found but Leningrad is truly something special. I call it a Russian time bomb.

Taste Test - Wow! What a garlic! I want more!

Leningrad is a real sleeper on both taste and pungency. At first bite it is a nice smooth mellow garlic that is pleasantly relaxing and friendly with no evidence of any unpleasant heat. After 15-20 seconds the flavor begins to become more garlicky and continues to slowly increase in garlickiness. About the same time one also begins to notice a gentle pungency begining to build and over the next 30-45 seconds continues to increase in hotness until a climax of garlickiness and pungency peaks at around a minute and then subsides slowly into a rich warm aftertaste that lingers and leaves one with mouth agape and breathless. After sitting in silence and my own sweat for a minute my reaction was Wow! What a garlic! I want more!

From a grower's perspective, it is a tall dark green plant and is a very good survivor, usually grows healthy and appears to be somewhat resistant to many of the diseases that can affect garlic. Obviously, this is a Russian garlic and it likes cold weather and can get quite large in good growing conditions.

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