I was looking thru the garden yesterday, planting some tomatoes and ... I guess just admiring the greenery in general, when I saw a few weeds within the garlic bed. I reached in to grab a weed, pulled a bit ... then noticed it wasn't a weed, but a garlic plant that had died. I figured it just didn't get as much sunlight as its quite happy neighbors are still getting, so it gave up the fight. I pulled some more, couldn't get it out of the ground. Grabbed a trowel, dug down, and pulled up a REAL nice sized head. 2.8 ounces, I weighed later. There were three more near dead soon to be ex-garlic plants in the same row; I removed those as well. There was a monster head -- 3.5 ounces! Sheez, I thought there wasn't even supposed to be swelling of the cloves til late June.

Four proper sized heads (2.0, 2.7, 2.8, and 3.5 ounces). Though I just noticed them on 30 May, these things have been ready to harvest for a couple weeks, as evidenced by just a few remaining thin wisps of rotten paper skins randomly around the cloves. There was still one entire layer around the 3.5 ounce head, so that one looks the nicest; the others, virtually paperless, are a bit dirty, understandably so.

I checked my planting notes to see what variety these heads were ... they're not the usual Roja/Music/etc variety, but some generic softneck 'Product Of China' stuff that I bought at K-Mart last year. Ate a bunch, planted the largest cloves last October.

The mind boggles. If the China stuff normally matures here in the States in early to mid-May, that would extend the season here two full months. WOW. More good garlic to eat, and perhaps make a killing at the farmer's market.

No way will these things keep til October to plant; now I'm actually *hoping* to find more Product Of China garlic at K-Mart come September. Sacrilege.

Full garlic in May. Amazing. Oh, and it tastes REAL good too, just like it did last year. China > Gilroy? Again, sacrilege.

Dumbfounded,

Jay