While I was unable to attend the Tomato Garlic Festival at Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh in August last year, I made it this year. Of all times, I forgot my camera and my cell phone so don’t have any pictures of the event. The main reason that I like to attend is to pick out my garlic from Enon Valley Garlic (see their webpage titled www.enonvalleygarlic.com).  One nice thing when you attend the festival is that they have the garlic sorted by heat level which is interesting. One bad thing is that they don’t include this info on their webpage.  When you purchase the garlic they put it in a little brown lunch bag and have the name stamped on it. So in preparation for writing this blog, I went to get more information on the four types of garlic that I selected. It appears that as they sell out a type of garlic, they take it off their website. Don’t worry, they have their phone number listed so I just gave them a jingle.
The man that answered the phone was very helpful but told me that he doesn’t put the heat chart on their webpage because the rankings change every year and depend on the weather and other conditions. He said that they have a group of people that taste and rank them. I would love to get invited to that party – add some wine and it could get interesting! Talk about stinky breath!
Garlic comes in two basic categories – softneck and hardneck.  1) Softnecks do not produce a flower, do well in warmer climates and store well when harvested.  2)  Hardnecks produce a flower stalk, like cooler climates, but don’t store as long as the softnecks.   I’ve grown both with success.
I selected two hardnecks, one softneck and one crossover which gives you the best of two types! There are several varieties under the categories of hardnecks and softnecks. I am just going to talk about the types that I selected.
Under hardecks, I picked Purple Glazer Garlic (see below left) which falls under the purple stripe variety and Music Garlic (see below right) which falls under the porcelain variety.
The purple stripe variety is known for the best baked garlic. They have purple streaks on papery shells. They store for about 6 months.
The porcelain variety has larger cloves and stores for about 8 months. The outer papery shell is white.
  
Under softnecks, I selected Silver Rose Garlic (see below left) which is a silverskin variety. It has a little heat and rose colored cloves. The silverskin variety has a strong flavor and stores up to one year.
The crossover or new garlic from Enon Valley is called Estes Garlic. It is a cross between a porcelain and purple stripe.
   
You better get planting because October is the prime month around here – before winter sets in.  I just planted my garlic this week. Don’t worry it will develop a good strong root system before winter and start growing in Spring.   Take the garlic bulb and break it into individual cloves.
Plant the pointy side up, 3″ deep and 6 inches apart.
Cover with soil and be patient until Spring when the green stems appear. I think I am going to put a cover over mine this year because we are supposed to get another wicked winter! I will post a picture later of this.
