I have been having bad luck with fresh garlic recently and have wasted money with inferior garlic which is either mouldy when you separate it into cloves or it smells old or is not as strongly flavoured as usual. These are all sold as NZ garlic, I don't ever buy Chinese garlic. I usually find our local New World has reliable garlic, terrible one from Pak n Save last week, Usually I find if the garlic is large, firm and white, sometimes a little purple with no softness or signs of mould all good.I keep my garlic in a terracotta pot in my pantry. Any thoughts of how to get great garlic again, we just love it.
uli,
Feb 11, 7:53am
Best garlic is organic.
Either from Ceres Auckland or Chantals Hastings (google it)
twindizzy,
Feb 11, 8:00am
Commonsense organics in Welly
sarahb5,
Feb 11, 8:26am
Anywhere but Countdown - they have these huge bulbs at the moment which have at most 6 huge cloves but they are awful, more like onion in texture than garlic and impossible to crush.I got some from the local Asian supermarket and it's much better.
Their garlic salt is amazing :) Like the lemon one also.
thewomble1,
Feb 11, 12:43pm
Best garlic grown in NZ and has the roots on the them. Chinese/importedgarlic has the roots removed so as to get them pastagriculture inspection.
sclaredy_cat,
Feb 11, 8:25pm
And years ago I heard that an irrigation ditch seen near a commercial garlic crop in China was filled with water that was 'bubbling like a witches cauldron'. I never bought Chinese garlic again. I have since realised that Chinese garlic is flavourless, small and fiddly, and that it's really really easy to grow your own :)
uli,
Feb 11, 10:20pm
They are called "Elephant garlic" but are in fact the storage bulbs of a leek. Nothing to do with garlic at all.
davidt4,
Feb 11, 10:35pm
Yesterday I bought some very nice NZ red-skinned garlic from Fruit World, $19.95 per kg.
cloudberry,
Feb 11, 10:35pm
That's interesting. I've just been given a head of it. I think I'll roast it, as an experiment.Incidentally our local New World (Dannevirke) has excellent new season's garlic on sale at the moment. Big plump cloves that make my skinny little homegrown stuff look half-starved.
sarahb5,
Feb 12, 4:19am
Countdown are selling it as NZ garlic - I chucked it out because it has no garlic flavour at all, although does smell more like onion than garlic.
kay141,
Feb 12, 4:24am
I bought some from a trader on here last year. Grown organically in Canterbury. I bought a large amount and froze it to stop it sprouting. I still have some in the freezer, It has kept well.
davidt4,
Feb 12, 5:28am
Unless you've got the oven on for something else, don't waste electricity on elephant garlic.It has a slightly rank flavour that isn't improved by roasting.I bought some by mistake the other week - Fruit World described it as new season NZ garlic and I didn't take enough notice.Not worth using.
uli,
Feb 12, 7:49am
You FROZE it! YUCK!
uli,
Feb 12, 7:51am
Can second that. It is not garlic. It doesn't taste like garlic. It doesn't have the health properties of garlic. It simply is a leek - so do not get sucked in!
cloudberry,
Feb 12, 8:23am
Oh, right! Thank you. Well then I won't waste my time with it and I'll feed it to the livestock. They're not very discriminating.
wendalls,
Feb 12, 9:14am
Yup. I too got sucked in by elephant garlic being sold under false pretenses. it certainly didnt fill my kitchen with the beautiful smell of sauteed garlic. Was going to ask on here as it really had me puzzled! I googled it but no mention of leeks.just described it as a milder form of garlic. huh!
uli,
Feb 13, 3:11am
No it is NOT garlic - however since it is much easier to grow many growers now grow that instead of garlic.
Do not get fooled!
kay141,
Feb 13, 3:23am
Feel better now! Don't knock it till you have tried it. Keeps a bulk supply fresh for a household of one and recommended by several organic growers.
uli,
Feb 13, 3:24am
I have tried it - and it came out terrible and bitter.
kay141,
Feb 13, 3:26am
Mine is fine, tastes and smells like garlic. Peels easily very easily when half frozen as well. I planted some too and got a great crop.
uli,
Feb 13, 4:31am
All the power to you then - keep up the good work! :)
kay141,
Feb 13, 4:33am
I shall, thank you.
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