Garlic Galore

Young (aka ‘green’) garlic can be found at farmer’s markets for a very short time, so grab it if you can!

Bob Blumer shares his two favourite Green Garlic recipes.

In my food-centric world, spring officially arrives when the first bunches of green garlic appear at my farmer’s market. You might think the young, immature garlic shoots are scallions and overlook them. But don’t be fooled: With every passing week, the stocks become a little thicker, and the bottom ends grow a little more bulbous. By the end of the growing season, the individual cloves are fully formed and the whole bulb matures into its familiar iconic form.

If you are lucky enough to have a vendor at your farmers market who sells garlic in its various stages, it’s fun to experiment and harness the distinguishing characteristics throughout its growth, so remember to start when they are young. The two recipes that follow are my personal faves, but you can use green garlic anywhere you would use scallions or leeks.

If you miss the green garlic season, fear not, garlic scapes (those curly flowering green shoots that appear at the top of the plant at the very end of the growing season) will be here very soon.