Fresh Garlic

...and, we're back!  It's been an epic couple of months of battling winged and bushy-tailed garden destroyers, off-homestead duties, and a cute little time vacuum, but things are finally starting to slow down enough to devote some eagerly-saved effort to blogging.  But don't worry, grasshoppers, we shall regale you with the full tale of these recent months in due time.

Today, we're talking garlic.  About a month ago, we realized the garlic tops hadn't grown in quite a while and the leaves were starting to turn brown.  Time to harvest!  While we managed to dig up most of the bulbs unscathed, we found three with damage.

(Katie says, "From the trowel you dug them up with?"

"No, no, of course not.  I would never make a careless mistake like that; they had those slices before I dug them up.  There's a new invasive species of Italian worm that makes marks just like those...surprised you haven't heard about it yet  Also, don't bother looking that up."

*Katie rolls her eyes.*)

So, what to do with the damaged bulbs?  They probably won't survive the normal curing process, being full of invasive Italian worm bites and all.

Any fresh garlic recipe will work, but we put most of it on pizzas.  The flavor of the fresh garlic was unreal.  Very different than even the garlic cloves from dried bulbs.  Yum.  As a side note, we didn't think to try Clotilde's use for the inter-clove membranes, which aren't dry and papery on fresh garlic, but you can bet your boots we will next year.

Also, we had a good time with the chopped scapes on the pizzas, but there are lots of other ways we're looking forward to trying next year, too.  For example, garlic scape pesto? That sounds pretty good!

What's your favorite use for freshly-pulled garlic?  Let us know in the comments section below!