A MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF CLOVE

You are receiving our quarterly complimentary email newsletter because you have explicitly signed up for it, requested our catalog or have purchased products from www.TheGarlicStore.com . If for any reason you do not wish to continue receiving our newsletter, simply click here , and follow the instructions to unsubscribe. Remember: We value your privacy. We will not supply any information about you, including email addresses, to third parties. In our ninth year on the Internet, we hope you will enjoy this next issue of our “ezine” created for our friends in the garlic gardening and gourmet cooking community. And to be sure that changes in your spam filters don’t block future issues, you may wish to add thechiefclove@TheGarlicStore.com to you accept list.

HERE THEY ARE - THE 2007 HARVEST - READY FOR ORDERING NOW

With considerable assistance from Mother Nature, the 2007 crop is well on its way and heading towards harvest. Below are the varieties we are 99% certain will survive all our quality control tests and be offered as Certified Organic Planting Stock (and table garlic. Hint: plant the large cloves and eat the smaller ones.) Almost all varieties are now available for advance ordering on a first come/first served basis. Due to popular demand, we are opening up the for advance order (AO) purchases earlier this season, so folks can be sure they get the varieties they want. Once your order is in the queue, we will ship the entire order when all the AO garlics are fully cured and ready for planting. Almost all varieties are ready for shipping by early to mid-September, in plenty of time for fall planting everywhere. So here is the line up of 2007 Garlic All Stars:

SOFTNECKS
Easy to grow, with long shelf life, intense flavor, best for braiding, thrives in all climates.

Achatami
Applegate                                            
Chet's Italian Red
Inchelium
Kettle River Giant
Lorz Italian
Nootka Rose
Polish White
Red Italian
Red Janice
Red Toch
Shantung Purple
Siciliano
Simonetti
Sonoran
Silverskin S&H
Silver White
Silver Rose
Susanville
Transylvanian

HARDNECKS
Distinguished by the production of scapes (which are both decorative and edible,) large, easy-to-peel cloves, the most complex and sophisticated of flavors, will grow almost anywhere, and especially tolerant of harsh winters.

Brown Tempest
Bogatyr
Bzenc
Chesnok Red
Georgia Crystal
Georgia Fire
German Hardy
German Red
German White
GSF #65
Guatemalan Ikeda
Italian Red
Killarney Red
Korean Red
Lavigna
Leningrad
Marino
Metechi
Morado Gigante
Music
Persian Star
Polish Hardneck
Purple Glazer
Pyong Vang Korean
Red Rezan
Romanian Red
Russian Giant
Shatili
Siberian
Stull
Spanish Roja
Tempest
Tuscan
Vekak Czech
Xian

ELEPHANTS
The largest bulbs, easy to peel, super cloves, milder but still complex taste, long shelf life, will grow anywhere, including in the deep south. The perfect roasting garlic.

Baby Elephant Bulbs
Big Bulbs
Jumbo Elephant Bulbs
Giant Cloves
Garlic Rounds

SAMPLER PACKS
For those suffering from terminal indecision (so many garlics, so little garden space,) or wanting to try a wide selection to see which varieties do the best in you local soil and weather conditions, we are planning the following 4-, 6- and 8-packs for this year. These include some rare and hard-to-find varieties. Check ‘em out!

Superstar Softnecks 6-Pack: Inchelium Red, Transylvanian, Kettle River Giant, Polish White, Susanville, Silver Rose

Milder Winter Exotic Hardnecks 6-Pack : Morado Gigante, Bogatyr, Purple Glazer, Georgia Fire, Xian, Asian Tempest

Softneck Favorites 6-Pack : Inchelium Red, Applegate, Chet's Italian, Nootka Rose, Red Toch, Silver Rose

Softneck-Colder Winters 6-Pack : Kettle River Giant, Red Toch, Inchelium, Simonetti, Polish White, Lorz Italian

Softneck-Milder Winters 6-Pack: Susanville, Siciliano, Polish White, Achatami, Silverwhite, CA early

Hardneck Favorites 6-Packs : Chesnok Red, German White, Persian Star, Stull, German Hardy, Metechi

Hardneck-Colder Winters 6-Pack : Music, Siberian, Russian Giant, Shatili, Khabar, Chesnok Red

Hardneck-Milder Winters 6-Pack : Italian Purple, Killarney Red, Guatemalan Ikeda, Armenian, Metechi, Spanish Roja

Super Sampler 4-Pack : Elephant clove, Chesnok Red, Nootka Rose, Inchelium Red

Exotic Hardnecks 6-Pack : Korean Red, Bzenc, Brown Tempest, Xian, Red Rezan, Vekak Czech,

Exotic Softneck 6-Pack : Chinese Pink, Red Janice, Shantung Purple, French Tarne, Tuscan, Silver Rose

Super All Star Sampler 8-Pack : Inchelium Red, Chesnok Red, German White, Transylvanian, Persian Star, Susanville, Silverwhite   

Rare & Heirloom Sampler 8-Pack: Chinese Pink, Acropolis Greek, Shantung Purple, Armenian, French Germinador, Shatili, Lavigna, GSF#65                                

LETTERS - WE GET LETTERS
We make a valiant effort to answer all your email questions on garlic growing and lore. But some questions are regulars every year, so we thought we would make a preemptive strike and answer one of the queries we get every year at harvest time:

“What are those funny little things on the outside of my elephant bulbs?”

Relax. They are called corms, and they are not a disease, a parasite or some alien creature’s spawn awaiting the signal to attack the planet. They are perfectly normal and common. Alliums have many propagation strategies, and this is another one, roughly equivalent to the bulbils on hardnecks. Most people simple pick them off once the bulb has cured. Be careful though, their pointy ends can really be sharp. Can you eat them? Maybe. Some have claimed they have ground them into flour to be used as a spice. Can you propagate new bulbs with them? Sorta. While they have been known to sprout when they fall off into the soil, they are usually are hard to germinate. And it takes more than one year to produce a decent sized bulb.

A NEW GARLIC RECIPE FOR YOU…
Here is an easy way to eat your veggies:

GARLIC VEGETABLE SMOOTHIE
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
4 tbsp medium hot salsa
1/2 cup raw, shelled sunflower seeds
1 cup broccoli
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1 medium tomato, quartered
1/2 carrot cut into 1" pieces
1-2 onion slices
1 cup leafy greens

Place liquids in blender and add remaining ingredients, a couple at a time. Process until smooth.

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 for growing your own top flight garlic, and also provides some historical facts about the history of garlic, along with fun scenes from the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Available now on DVD.

Order online at www.TheGarlicStore.com

THE CUTTING OF THE SCAPES
For those raising hardnecks or elephants, June in most areas is the time to cut the scapes! (Note: scapes emerge earlier in the deep south or west coast.) Especially for novices, this can be a bit of a puzzle. A scape is a central stalk that shoots up after the plant has reached 12-24 inches in height. On the top appears a capsule-like pod (the spathe) which contains the garlic flower. If left on to maturity, the scape flowers bloom and leave behind clusters of tiny bulbils, which resemble seeds, but are in fact biologically small bulbs. Domestic allium sativum is sterile, so the plant actually has no true seeds (and therefore varieties can’t cross-pollinate.) But most folks cut their scapes after they have emerged 12-18 inches and have started to uncurl. Why? Because the plant will then focus on creating big bulbs in the ground, not lush bulbils on the top. And the edible scapes are one of garlic’s great by-products. Our web site has many recipes using scapes. They make a super stir fry (a cross between asparagus and garlic,) can be used in a great pesto, are wonderful when pickled…and so much more. As for the new grower, cut only the central stalk, not any of the green leaves. Make the cut about 8 inches or so from the top.

CREDIT CARDS

We at www.TheGarlicStore.com take credit cards in payment (along with checks, money orders, gold bullion and gasoline.) In the modern “e-commerce” world, we pretty much depend on plastic money to make things happen. But we would like to pass along this consumer alert:

Be sure to cancel your credit cards before you die.

A lady died this past January, and Citibank billed her for February for their annual service charges on her credit card, and then added late fees and interest on the annual charge. The balance had been $0.00, now it is somewhere around $60.00.

A family member placed a call to Citibank:

Family Member: "I'm calling to tell you that she died in January."

Citibank: "The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply."

Family Member: "Maybe you should turn it over to collections."

Citibank: "Since it is two months past due, it already has been."

Family Member: So, what will they do when they find out she is dead?"

Citibank: "Either report her account to the frauds division or report her to the credit bureau; maybe both!"

Family Member: "Do you think God will be mad at her?"

Citibank: "Excuse me?"

Family Member: "Did you just get what I was telling you . . . the part about her being dead?"

Citibank: "Sir, you'll have to speak to my supervisor."

Supervisor gets on the phone.

Family Member: "I'm calling to tell you she died in January."

Citibank: "The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply."

Family Member: "You mean you want to collect from her estate?"

Citibank: (Stammer) "Are you her lawyer?"

Family Member: "No, I'm her great nephew." (Lawyer info given)

Citibank: "Could you fax us a certificate of death?"

Family Member: "Sure." (the fax number is given)

After they get the fax ...

Citibank: "Our system just isn't setup for death. I don't know what more I can do to help."

Family Member: "Well, if you figure it out, great! If not, you could just keep billing her. I don't think she will care."

Citibank: "Well, the late fees and charges do still apply."

Family Member: "Would you like her new billing address?"

Citibank: "That might help."

Family Member: " Odessa Memorial Cemetery, Highway 129, Plot Number 69."

Citibank: "Sir, that's a cemetery!"

Family Member: "So, what do you do with dead people on your planet?"

And to think that department is called "customer service"

A PUN MY WORD

One of our favorite books is Puns and Jokes for Groan Ups by the late Saint Louis University meteorology professor, Dr. James Moore. He passed away last year, but left behind a marvelous legacy of puns and wonderful questions that make you go…why didn’t I think of that?

• How do you recognize rabbit stew? It has hares in it.
• My neighbor was in the hospital, but then he took a turn for the nurse.
• Sky divers are good to the last drop.
• Wyatt Earp was the right caliber man for the job.
• When a pig has laryngitis, is it disgruntled?
• I don’t know if the guy was really a lawyer or if he was just going through the motions.
• Igor was unsure which road led to the mad scientist’s castle, so he took the psychopath.

NATIONAL LIGHTNING SAFETY WEEK
Speaking of meteorologists and weather. We wish you a Happy 2007 hurricane season (already off to a roaring good start) running from 1 June through 30 November. Please remember, lightning kills more Americans – including gardeners – each year than hurricanes and tornadoes combined. July is the deadliest month. The reasons: (1) many of the 30+ million strikes to the U.S. each year occur during this month, (2) so many people are enjoying the outdoors, including the harvesting of their bulbs, and (3) an awful lot of folks think it can’t happen to them. Over 1000 Americans are struck by lightning each year – much “better” odds than winning the big lottery jackpot. And avoiding lightning is a simple matter of taking shelter inside a well constructed building or an enclosed vehicle. If the time between seeing a lightning flash and hearing thunder is 30 seconds or less…go inside. Stay there until 30 minutes after the last clap of thunder. More people are killed by lightning when it is no longer raining…since lightning can still jump way outside the rainy part of the cloud and nail you. Remember the 30:30 rule! For more information, visit the National Weather Service Lightning Safety Week (24-30 June 2007) website: http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/
When Thunder roars, go indoors!

EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW I LEARN FROM MY EMAIL

With all the email we receive, you can cull a lot of interesting bits of wisdom. A few of our favorites includes a graphical dictionary for the not yet quite computer literate:

Also, we learned that even babies like garlic. When nursing mothers eat garlic, infants stay longer at the breast and drink more, not less, milk, this according to a Philadelphia medical research group.

Eating parsley will help reduce your garlic breath. However, the effect is only transient, as the garlic usually infuses the blood stream for between 4 and 18 hours. Best to just have everybody eat garlic and be done with it!

A garlic clove has only between one and four calories.

Strange but true: People in the south of England east twice as much garlic as those in northern France.

QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS
You can always email TheGarlicStore.com with your garlic questions (TheChiefClove@TheGarlicStore.com.) But if you would like your question answered in an upcoming issue of The Garlic Store Gazette, just let us know. We can publish your favorite garlic pictures too (just send them as an email attachment).

Published by: www.TheGarlicStore.com at Mail Creek Lane, Fort Collins, CO 80525. A member of the Better Business Bureau Online. Email us at: TheChiefClove@TheGarlicStore.com or call us at 1-800-854-7219 (Mon-Fri, 10 AM - 6 PM Denver Time)
© The Garlic Store/FMA, Inc., 2007