A Message from The Chief Clove:
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SOMETHING NEW UNDER THE SUN - BABY GREEN GARLIC ™
We are pleased to announce a new garlic treat, baby green garlic™…a fresh garlic product that will be available all year around! TheGarlicStore.com will serve as the on line consumer source for baby green garlic from Ophios, LLC, a leading hardneck garlic research company in Rhode Island . Baby green garlic™ grown from hardneck garlic bulbils, is a long, tender, green shoot of pure garlic flavor. It is a versatile vegetable product perfect as a garnish and in salads, soups and sandwiches. The mild garlic flavor provides added taste to your favorite dishes without any bitterness or unfavorable after-taste or odor. See our expanded recipe section below for some creative serving ideas.

Baby Green Garlic™ is a gourmet product already being used by top restaurant chefs. Greenhouse grown, the shoots are harvested fresh and shipped to you via Priority Mail anywhere in the country. We are delighted to be partnering with Ophios in introducing the virtues of Baby Green Garlic™ to the gourmet culinary community and to make the product a vegetable of choice for consumers. Please visit the new page on our web site for ordering information.

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WHAT'S IN THE GROUND FOR 2005?
One reason we don’t open our web site for advanced ordering until about August 1 st is that all our bulbs are still in the ground. Since there is no sonogram for garlic, we can’t get a very good picture of how the babies are doing. We will only market those varieties that meet our highest standards. But Mother Earth usually delivers, so we are fairly confident we now know most of the varieties we will be offering. We have listed them below. You can expect to receive a another edition of The Garlic Gazette, announcing the formal opening of shopping for this year!

ELEPHANTS
Jumbo Roasting Bulbs
Big Elephant Bulbs
Baby Elephant Bulbs
Elephant Cloves
Elephant Rounds

SOFTNECKS
Artichoke Varieties
Achatami
Acropolis Greek
Ail de Pays Ger
California Early
Chet's Italian Red
Early Red Italian
French Red
French Tarne
Inchelium Red
Kettle River Giant
Lorz Italian
Oregon Blue
Purple Italian
Randl Colorado White
Red Toch
Siciliano
Sicilian Gold
Simonetti
Susanville
Transylvanian

Silverskin Varieties
Nootka Rose
Silverwhite
Silverskin
Silver Rose
Garlic Braids

HARDNECKS
Purple Striped Varieties
Bogatyr
Brown Tempest
Chesnok Red
Korean Red
Metechi
Persian Star
Red Rezan
Russian Giant
Siberian
Vekak Czech

Porcelain Varieties
Armenian
Georgia Crystal
Georgia Fire
German Extra Hardy
German Porcelain
German White
Leningrad
Music
Northern White
Romanian Red
Rosewood
Polish Hardneck
Romanian Red
Zemo

Rocambole Varieties
Colorado Black
Dominics
German Red
German White
GSF #65
Hokkaido Zaitai
Italian Purple
Killarney Red
Marino
Russian Giant
Russian Red
Russian Salvation
Spanish Roja
Temptress
Yugo Red

The Garlic Grower’s Video/ DVD
We call it “A Garlic Gardener’s Guide.” This 32 minute production shows you the tricks of the trade to grow your own top flight garlic, as well as providing some historical facts about the history of garlic, along with fun scenes from the great Gilroy Festival. Available now as either VHS tape ($19.95 plus S&H) or DVD ($24.95 plus S&H)

Questions and Comments
You can always email TheGarlicStore.com with your garlic questions at TheChiefClove@TheGarlicStore.com. But if you would like your question and answer in an upcoming issue of The Garlic Store Gazette, just drop us a line. We can publish your favorite garlic pictures too (just send them as an email attachment).

Published by: www.TheGarlicStore.com at Yucca Ridge Farm, 46050 Weld County Road 13, Fort Collins, CO 80524. A member of the Better Business Bureau Online. Email us at: TheChiefClove@TheGarlicStore.com

SPRING GARLIC ALL SUMMER LONG
Baby green garlic™, grown from bulbils, is not to be confused with green garlic, aka spring garlic. These are plants grown from cloves and harvested after they reach 12-15 inches height. Often folks plant in the fall and harvest during the spring, typically mid-May. The crunchy shoots can be used just like scallions…but give you an allicin boost and garlicky flavor you can get no other way. (We are having green garlic soup for our guests coming to visit tonight…yummy). But, the good news is, you can harvest green garlic from your own garden all spring and summer and even into early fall. Whenever you have a few small cloves left over from a garlicky feast, just pop them in the soil and let them grow. After 6 to 8 weeks they will be ready for harvest. And then, into the kitchen they go for pesto, soups, stir fries…or whatever creative uses you can devise.

THE SCAPES ARE COMING!
In accordance with our goal of using every part of the garlic plant, including the squeal (a severely mixed metaphor, we fear), we remind our hardneck growers that it will soon be time to remove the scapes from your plants. And when you trim them early enough, you have one tasty vegetable. See below for how your scapes fit into the big picture of the coming harvest.

HERE COMES THE HARVEST!
We’re in the home stretch for the 2005 garlic growing season. We get many questions from anxious growers, especially new ones having their first “garlic babies.” And garlic, like people, take about nine months, so for September/October planted cloves, July is the time that Mother Earth will give birth to the new bulbs. But you need to exercise some pre-natal care before the big day. After early June you want to cut off any fertilizer applications. Too much nutrition at this stage will mean big green plants, but rather small bulbs. And if you planted elephants or hardnecks, be ready to remove the scapes once they emerge. We usually wait until they are 12-18 inches high, and then remove the upper 6 to 8 inches. This does two things for you. First, it allows you to start eating your garlic, as scapes are a great veggie for stir fries, pesto, soups, pickles, etc. Secondly, it promotes bulb growth. And since you since can now purchase both baby green garlic™ and the bulbils they grow from on our site, you can devote yourself to getting big bulbs instead of allowing the bulbils to mature.

New growers get nervous when they see some browning on the leaves or leaf tips this time of year. Usually this is not a problem, but a result of a little winter burn or wind damage. You do not want to harvest too early, as most of the bulb growth occurs during the last month. One eager garlic grower called us in May wondering why, when he pulled his bulbs, they were so small. Well, after the garlic equivalent of a premature c-section, it is little wonder. But you don’t want to harvest too late, either. Bulbs left in the ground too long will rapidly develop split wrappers which destroys the aesthetics and shelf storage of the garlic. So, wait until most of the lower third to half of the leaves have largely turned brown, and then do a test pull. If the the bulbs have well defined cloves under firm skins, and you’re happy with the size, they’re ready! And don’t forget to cure them properly…three weeks in a well ventilated, shady place will usually do the trick.

THE WEATHER
Garlic is less weather sensitive than many crops, as long as it gets enough water. But that is what irrigation is for. Cold? No problem. Heck, the plant’s origins is in Siberia . Snow? Dump a foot on the plants and they seem to be playing in it. Wind? We’ve seen the plants swaying in 65 mph gales, almost like they were exercising, with no lasting damage. Hail? Well, that can be a problem if it gets big enough. But even though Yucca Ridge Farm lies near the climatological maximum for hailstorms in the U.S (the Cheyenne Ridge, just to our north), we have been lucky over the years. The largest hail during a growing season we’ve seen has been about the size of marbles. So far, so good, this season as well. But this does remind us of a little poem written by Ernest Slyman:

Hailstorm
Lightning’s omen,
Thunder’s din!
The sky has lost its marbles!
May the tournament begin!

NEW PRODUCTS
Besides welcoming Green Baby Garlic™, we have a couple of yummy new products to introduce:

Garlic paste - its nutty, smooth garlic paste spoons right out of the jar into almost any dish. Garlic bread, anyone?



Olive spread with garlic - well-balanced flavors.A green olive lover's treat.






A new garlic salt - freshly blended at shipping time (to us) for optimal flavor. Two essential seasonings in one.






And in the book section we now carry


Everything Tastes Better with Garlic








and a newcomer
:

There's No Such Thing As Too Much Garlic.










RECIPES
Don't forget, www.TheGarlicStore.com publishes a new garlic recipe each month. We have built up quite a collection. Go to our home page for some great garlic cooking ideas!

Green Garlic Pesto

15 stalks Baby Green Garlic (blanched for 10 minutes in boiling water)
1/4th cup of extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp toasted pine nuts, walnuts or almonds and a pinch of salt
1-2 pinches of black pepper
1/2 inch chunk of parmesan, cut up
Whirl the nuts and the parmesan in a work bowl of a food processor for a few pulses. Cut the Baby Green Garlic stalks into 1-2 inch lengths. Drop in the garlic pieces through the feed tube as the food processor is running. Add the olive oil while it’s running and enjoy.


Baby Green Mashed Potatoes

1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled
4 tbsp butter
2 bunches baby green garlic, green leaves only
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cream
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Leave the potatoes whole if small or cut in half if large. Place in a large saucepan with salted water to cover by several inches. Bring to a simmer, cover partially and adjust heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Cook until a knife slips in easily, about 30 minutes. Drain, then return the potatoes to the warm pot. Return the pot to the heat and shake until any moisture evaporates. While the potatoes cook, melt the butter in a small saucepan over moderate heat. Add the baby green garlic and saute until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the milk and cream. Season with salt and pepper. Put the boiled potatoes through a food mill or ricer. Add hot milk mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Serves 6.

Clams with Baby Green Garlic

50 small clams in the shell, scrubbed
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
18 stalks of Baby Green Garlic, chopped
1 cup white wine
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 lemons, juice of
1 pinch hot pepper flakes
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
Wash clams to remove any dirt or sand. In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add Baby Green Garlic. Pour in the white wine. Boil until wine has reduced to half its original volume. Add clams, cover, and steam till clams start to open. Add butter, lemon and red pepper flakes, cover, and cook till most or all of the clams open. Discard any that do not open. Transfer clams and juice to large bowls. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve with warm crusty bread for dipping or on top of pasta!