People love their moms. And then some people really love garlic, too. This “allium sativum” tattoo is the real deal! We assume “Mom” is emblazoned on the other arm. (From Randy Clemens, artwork by Howard Terman at Art to the Bone in Sherman Oaks, CA).
SPRING HAS SPRUNG - NOW WHAT?
Five more months until the garlic is harvested, cured and ready for the table. Who can wait that long? Aside from popping some of the tasty pickled garlics available in the food section at the grocery store, you can be pro-active and start growing some garlic…right now...which will be ready for the table in 6-8 weeks. We are talking about spring baby garlic, a.k.a. green garlic. The green shoots of the garlic plant, when they reach 12-16 inches tall, look a lot like green onions or scallions…but boy, do they ever taste like garlic. Super for wok-style cooking, chopped into a salad, braised with a roast, or transformed into a pesto, spring garlic is a real treat. All you needs is a little garden plot and a handful of garlic cloves of any kind (except elephant, which is actually a leek, but that’s another story for another day). Have some small cloves left over? Just plant them about 1-2 inches deep and 1-2 inches apart. Be sure they are watered regularly, and maybe add a bit of fertilizer into the soil with planting. Harvest when the shoots are a bit more than a foot tall, and long before the bulb starts to fill out. Check out the recipe section for some great ideas about using green garlic.
SPRING PLANTING? YES!
While fall to early winter planting is usually preferred, we have conducted numerous experiments which show that early spring planted garlic can do very well. The bulbs may be a tad smaller than their fall-planted cousins, but they are harvested around the same time and taste just as zesty. TheGarlicStore.com has reserved a supply of elephant cloves for your spring planting needs, and the best news, they are 50% off the normal retail price (if you know the magic words.) But order NOW. After mid-April, it is getting a bit late for planting.
APRIL FOOL'S ELEPHANT GARLIC SALE
Yup, 50% off. For real. No joke. A special for Garlic Gazette readers. All elephant garlic cloves are 50% off!
Just type the words APRIL FOOL into the comment box when you place your order on line. If you say that when you phone in an order, no one will be offended
A NEW GARLIC RECIPE FOR YOU…
Jim Lutz of Bangor, Maine, sent up this decadent recipe:
Scrumptuous Garlic-Shrimp-Crab Dip
2 8oz packages of cream cheese
1 stick of butter
4 to 8 cloves of garlic crushed and very fine (to taste)
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley (food processor)
dash of Worcestershire
2 cups of finely chopped shrimp (food processor)
1 4oz can white crabmeat
1 package of medium Pita Bread
In a saucepan on low heat, melt the butter and add the garlic. Cook to infuse the garlic taste. Add the softened cream cheese, parsley and Worcestershire and bring to nearly boiling. You can do this in a double boiler or on very low heat. Stir as you add the shrimp and crab and continue to cook for 10 mins. Do not burn.
Cut the pita bread into pie shaped wedges (like a pizza) and peel apart. Place on a baking rack over a cookie sheet with the bread side up. Spray with melted butter and sprinkle garlic powder and sea salt on top. Bake at 350 degrees until brown and crisp.
Serve warm and use the pita wedges to dip. Also great as a bagel wipe.
NON CAMPUS MENTIS
From a book of the above name by Professor of History, Anders Henriksson, published by Workman Publishing, we present some actual answers on real history examinations in reputable U.S. and Canadian universities and colleges:
Cesar was assassinated on the Yikes of March when he is reported to have said, “Me too, Brutus!”
Stalin, Rosevelt, Churchill and Truman were known as the “Big Three.”
Rasputin was a pheasant by birth.
Hitler’s instrumentality of terror was The Gespacho.
Judyism had one big God named “Yahoo”.
Marie Curie won the Noel Prize for inventing the radiator
The Civil Rights movement turned around the corner with Martin Luther Junior’s famous “If I had a Hammer” speech.
Socrates was accused of sophmorism and sentence to die of hemroyds.
St. Teresa of Avila was a carmelized nun.
If those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it, the next 50 years are going to be really, really interesting.
EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW I LEARN FROM MY EMAIL
This supposedly true story recently plopped into our email inbox (amidst 45,477,723 pieces of spam):
A police officer pulls over a speeding car. The officer says,
" I clocked you at 80 miles per hour, sir ."
The driver says, "Gee, officer I had it on cruise control at 60, perhaps your radar gun needs calibrating."
Not looking up from her knitting the wife says: "Now don't be silly dear, you know that this car doesn't have cruise control."
As the officer writes out the ticket, the driver looks over at his wife and growls, "Can't you please keep your mouth shut for once?"
The wife smiles demurely and says, "You should be thankful your radar detector went off when it did."
As the officer makes out the second ticket for the illegal radar detector unit, the man glowers at his wife and says through clenched teeth, "Darnit, woman, can't you keep your mouth shut?"
The officer frowns and says, "And I notice that you're not wearing your seat belt, sir. That's an automatic $75 fine."
The driver says, "Yeah, well, you see officer, I had it on, but took it off when you pulled me over so that I could get my license out of my back pocket."
The wife says, "Now, dear, you know very well that you didn't have your seat belt on. You never wear your seat belt when you're driving."
And as the police officer is writing out the third ticket the driver turns to his wife and barks, "WHY DON'T YOU PLEASE SHUT UP??"
The officer looks over at the woman and asks, "Does your husband always talk to you this way, Ma'am?"
"Only when he's been drinking."
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 5313 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, 2008
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