http://www.feldoncentral.com/garden/photos/d/6370-1/G2.jpg

I arrived at the market an hour after opening, this vendor still had 10 or so left of these huge things. Hard to tell from just the photo, but the right clove is just a touch over four inches in diameter at its widest point, three inches at its narrowest.

I assumed elephant garlic, but the seller assured me she planted regular garlic cloves late last year, and they just all came up huge this year. Full, hot garlic flavor she said. Two more photos:

http://www.feldoncentral.com/garden/photos/d/6368-1/G1.jpg
http://www.feldoncentral.com/garden/photos/d/6372-1/G3.jpg

I purchased three, buck and a half per. Haven't busted any open yet, as I'm saving them to plant in a couple months. They don't look like elephants, tho since I don't grow elephant, I'm not an expert at identifying them. Each head has six cloves, eight if you include the two small mutant clove things popping out at opposite ends of each head (what's up with those?).

Seller didn't know what specific kind they were. Hardneck, appear to be completely eggshell white (no color streaks at all).

Any idea what these are? The Growing Great Garlic guy says to avoid bulbs over three inches, as you'll get erratic (mostly disappointing) results, but my curiosity will force me to plant every clove.

FYI, seller info: Tiasquam Brook Farm, out of West Tisbury MA. Flowers, herbs, vegetables. Plowing and mowing services too, heh heh.

Those are huge! Will you try any of the cloves yourself or will you plant all? At my one of my local farmers' market, I picked up a large hardneck. The farmer would only tell me it's a hardneck and nothing further. Lending me the impression he knows more then he's letting on.

He had pulled them up that morning so I am curing it. I only purchased one bulb for $1 but I plan on growing a couple of cloves and eating/tasting the rest.

I only have 40 sq ft of space and plant garlic in about 15-18 sq ft.

Robert

I opened the heads, out of curiosity and concern about the cloves rotting. The softneck weighed in at 229g, exactly half a pound. Smelled and tasted *horrible*, like I was eating weeds or something. I'll sample the hardnecks soon, hoping for a better result there. I think I'll still plant the majority of the remaining cloves, at least to see if I can grow half pound garlic.

Unless someone can tell me definitively that these things are elephants? How can that be if one was a softneck?

J

Were you referring to regular garlic or elephant? I don't think I've ever grown elephant smaller than 4 inches.

Mark

I just got back from the Virginia garlic festival and because of the drought on the east coast the largest garlic weighed in at only 1/2 pound. They usually weigh at least a pound. We didn't even enter one in the contest this year ours were less than that.

-- The two mutant little cormes on each one
-- The number of folks in this thread who can look at the pics and say with certainty that they're elephants. I never grew elephant before, so I can't identify them by sight.
-- They were not cured at all, and tasted and smelled terrible.

I planted 11 of these cloves, four from the softneck on 16 October, rest from the two hardnecks 22 Oct. I'll try to remember to give a report of the results in June.

Jay

The softneck had ten cloves (plus two cormes), in two layers. The link below shows a pic of the softneck right after I removed all the paper.

I tasted the third largest clove (raw and sauteed, 'yecch' in both instances!), and planted the remaining four large ones. Chucked the rest, though I would've planted all of 'em if the flavor was up to scratch.

I have no explanation why this one was a softneck. I s'pose it could've been just a 'soft hardneck', but I remember it wasn't close to resembling a hardneck; I don't think I'd be fooled by something that should be easy to see.

Jay