Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

had to pass on this gem of culinary verbosity. learned of this from Rick 
Bayless. we'll start growing it for early market this year.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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Kinder, gentler green garlic mellows out the menu
Less bite means more versatility. Use it liberally in omelets,
stir-fries, soups, pasta and even raw salads.
March 11, 2010|By Amy Scattergood | Special to the Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/11/food/la-fo-greengarlic-20100311

Long before "Twilight" and "True Blood" and the Modern Age of
Vampires, garlic was used as a talisman: a panacea against bad spirits
in the Middle Ages and against illness during the Crusades. Even those
of us who happily load our soups and stews with dozens of the pale
cloves can tell why it was hung across doorways to prevent entrance.
Mature garlic can be overwhelming, even relentless; a single raw clove
minced on a board is capable of determining the course of an entire
meal, whether you want it to or not.

But imagine garlic without its bite, the autocracy of its properties
calmed, even made subtle. You don't need a spell for this one, just a
farmer.

Green garlic, also called young garlic, is exactly what it sounds
like: the green shoots of immature garlic bulbs that have been picked
early. Farmers have historically picked green garlic to thin out their
crop, bringing baskets of the early greens to market to sell as a
secondary crop, a kind of seasonal teaser for what's to come. A pile
of the delicate stalks discovered on a market stand in the early weeks
of spring can seem like a sudden gift, a dirt-clad promise of fava
beans and English peas and the approaching burst of full-on spring
produce.

But when home cooks and restaurant chefs started grabbing up the piles
of green garlic, many farmers turned the accidental crop into a
purposeful one, often planting extra rows just for early harvest.

Green garlic, a handful of which resembles a bunch of shapely
scallions, is delicate in flavor, with the dominant notes of mature
garlic restrained. Imagine the platonic ideal of garlic rather than
the squat overlord that usually sits in your dry goods bin.

Unlike full-grown bulbs of garlic — which have been dried and come
papered with thin layers of husks, as if they've been wrapped in
parchment — green garlic can be used in its entirety. The long green
stalks, the pale tender bulbs, even the roots can be eaten. Just wash
them carefully; as with leeks, another allium, the dirt that engenders
the plants can become embedded between the layers as they grow.

Especially if it's quite young, treat green garlic like you would
scallion, mincing the whole stalk and adding it to omelets, stir-fries
and soups. It's even mild enough to add raw to salads. The garlic
flavor will be there, but as background music, able to accompany other
flavors rather than override them. When cooked, green garlic mellows
further, becoming even sweeter and slightly nutty.