Garlic

Garlic is one of the easiest things to pop in the garden.  Remembering to do it is the hard part.  When you are cleaning up much of the other vegetable garden debris in the fall, that is the time to put in your garlic.
Choose bulbs in good condition, no cuts or soft spots.  Any garlic will do but if you want to braid your garlic, you will have to choose a soft neck variety.  Do a little research and you can decide which one you will like.  I usually end up with a hard neck variety.  The center stalk comes off of these like a stiff stick and is not going to braid no matter what you do.  I grow it to cook with so storing it in a mesh bag or basket in the basement serves my purpose well.  After  you have chosen the variety you want and hve selected bulbs in good shape you have to pull them apart like you are going to cook with the individual cloves-Don't take off all the papery husk from each clove though.  Each bulb will probably have 4-6 cloves each.  This is usually enough for me.  Chose the best cloves with no rot and of good size.  Small cloves will grow small bulbs, big cloves-big bulbs.  Loosen up the soil well and plant the cloves 5-6" deep.  Some books may advise less but this depth has been successful for me.  Cover with soil and walk away.
In the spring you don't have to worry too much about forgetting where the garlic was put in as it starts showing pretty early.
In early summer they will send up a flower stalk which will curl around as it grows.  When it is still not in bloom but curled, cut off this part called the scape.  The internet has many ways to cook with scapes.  They are mild in their garlic flavor.  Allow the garlic to remain in the ground until the leaves start to yellow and die.  Now is the time to pull it out (midsummer is about right).  Gently clean off the dirt and cut the stalks back to several inches.  Cut off most of the roots off the bottom.  Hang in a cool, dry location to cure.  Garlic cloves will store well into winter.
Garlic reminds me of my aunt, Ginny.  Aunt Ginny was born to Scandinavian parents but we always thought of her as Italian as she married a dark, handsome, Italian man from Chicago.  Aunt Ginny was blonde and very petite, but she learned how to cook Italian and her accent tells you she is from Chicago.  I will never forget the first time she made her garlic bread loaded with mushrooms and cheese on one of her visits to our little town in northern Wisconsin.  It was wonderful!  When anyone makes it we call it Aunt Ginny's bread.  Here's to Aunt Ginny's fantastic use of garlic!