Let’s say that one year you had to abandon your garden to go live in Taiwan for several months and your garlic never got harvested that fall. Then, when you got home in the next year, you tried to transplant it in the fall, but it had apparently been too bunched up. You gave it a couple of years to be cooperative, but it didn’t seem to want to form into cloves again. However, it had been very prolific, so it seemed like it is worth a try to move it again and compare it to some garlic that you purchased for another fall planting. You thought you had dug most of it up, but amazingly, the whole row fills up with growing garlic again.
This is a problem, because it is now spring and you want to plant other things in that row. You are not ready to designate 2 long garden rows to garlic. You start the sad job of digging it out. When you see the fresh bulbs, with a bit of deep purple around the necks, you remember buying spring garlic in the street markets in Taiwan. Ah ha! You smell your own spring garlic, which is not as large as what you bought in Taiwan, but it has a pleasant mild garlic aroma.
Suddenly, you are happily digging up the rest of the garlic. You set aside some for yourself, then call a couple of family members and friends to see if they want some! They do and you get to pass it on that day.
When you get in the house, you make an omelette using the thinly sliced garlic and a bit of leek that also had to be removed from it’s garden residence. Of course, the ham fried, then heated with some maple syrup, plus cheddar and cream cheese add to the tasty omelette as well. What was going to simply be tedious garden clean-up has turned into a wonderful Sunday supper.
