I adore garlic and use if often in cooking but I usually buy it from the grocery store in that mesh three pack freshly flown in from China. With the Carp Garlic Festival happening this weekend I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to break my Chinese garlic habit and buy it locally, maybe try different varieties.
With over 30 vendors selling different varieties of garlic and garlic products it was a garlic wonderland! My goal was to buy a good multipurpose garlic that had good flavour and could be used in everyday cooking but I also wanted to explore some of the different varieties.
After surveying the grounds, resisting The Girl with the Most Cake and buying fresh beans, tomatoes, apples and peppers I started learning about the many varieties of garlic. For my multipurpose garlic I picked a small $10 braid of Music - a popular Ontario variety that is full of flavor and stores extremely well. The boyfriend was attracted to the large Elephant garlic, although it's cloves are as large as some small garlic bulbs it has a less intense, sweeter flavor. Finally, I picked up a pound of scapes and half dozen bulbs of the more robust flavored Czech rocambole.
I'm pretty sure I bought more garlic than I use in a whole year. But I love the flavor of garlic and I hope I can use it to not only enhance the flavors of everyday cooking but create interesting dishes where garlic is the feature ingredient.
