Semi-cooking related, has anyone ever grown their own garlic? Just wondering...

Haven't tried to grow my own garlic, but it sounds like a fun thing to take a swing at. (Of course, I couldn't even get tomatoes going this season...)

Probably no cooking tonight, it's either Swedish Meatballs or meatloaf for dinner tomorrow. Mmmmmm.

Not sure. I just went grocery shopping after being gone for 2 weeks, so I'm sort of overloaded with ideas. I'll probably just give up and make a sandwhich. :-)

BTW, just as an observation, I now know why people at Whole Foods are so damn skinny. You cannot afford to buy too much if you shop there.

I've been away for 2 weeks as well and HAVE to get back to cooking, somehow. Right now everthing looks complicated and lengthy in preparation-cooking with the avail. fall harvest ingredients, which I interpret as stuff for cooking in bulk.. help!
anyone pick up the 'Latino' issue of Gourmet, any comments? I have one: the pupusas recipe. Not really right. chicharron should be ground with fresh onion & tomato before being used as a filling for pupusas (not just chicharron). Each ingredient goes in separately, if it's a mixed pupusa (cheese, beans and chicharron). But each pupusa with one filling only is the usual. Second, never canned (and not kidney) beans. Ground and fried homemade small red beans are used. (the cheese filling is another story)

about garlic: my mother planted it one year at her house in Maine. It grew very well but then something went wrong. The scapes came up and then the garlic stopped growing. Are you supposed to trim the scapes? They might have also needed thinning. (My mother is a very hands-off gardener.) In any case, the garlic was small but bushy.

Anne, I haven't grown it myself, but I remember reading that you should wait until the second year to harvest. Apparently the garlic is always small in its first season but if you let it be, it'll get bigger by the next season.

Hmm, thanks guys, maybe I will just plant lots so I can harvest a tiny bit next year and find out what it looks like the first year. And cut the scapes off some to see if it makes a difference. How scientific can I be? We'll see...