Is garlic a vegetable? is our next guide that we want to publised to help you the what really is garlic either a vegetable, herbs or spice
Garlic is botanically known to be vegetable, though garlic is popularly known or used as a herb or spice in many homes which also give a good taste when added to a meal, garlic also gives a lot of health benefits and give good flavor when added to a meal
SUMMARY
IS GARLIC A VEGETABLE
We welcome you to garliccare, here we try to answers all you question about garlic and how to grow garlic, plant garlic, and garlic recipes. But this article or guide will talk about “is garlic a vegetable”.
BOTANICAL CLASSIFICATION OF GARLIC
Botanically, garlic (Allium sativum) is considered a vegetable.
It belongs to the onion family, alongside shallots, leeks, and chives (2).
Strictly speaking, a vegetable is any edible part of an herbaceous plant, such as the roots, leaves, stems, and bulbs.
The garlic plant itself has a bulb, tall stem, and long leaves.
Although the leaves and flowers of the plant are also edible, the bulb — comprised of 10–20 cloves — is most frequently eaten. It’s covered in a paper-like husk that’s typically removed before consumption.
HISTORY OF CULTIVATION
In Ghana, garlic is usually grown in the fall, so garlic cloves are exposed to the cold temperatures (splitting) that many types of garlic require.
Garlic can be planted in the spring, however, plants often form single bulbs (called rotations) and or grow natural bulbs much smaller than pods grown in the fall (see our article “Growing Garlic in the Spring” for more information).
The best time to plant garlic in the fall depends primarily on where you live in Ghana. Your goal is to plant early enough so that the cloves develop a large root system while sowing late enough that the garlic clove does not sprout and show green growth above the ground.
This means the planting date can be anywhere from the last week of September to the end of November, depending on where you live and how long you want the cloves to settle before winter.
In cooler regions in Zone 3 or 4, such as northwest Ghana, where winter comes early, garlic can be planted as early as September 21 or until the end of October.
In warmer regions like southern Ghana, planting can range from early October to the last week of November.
If you plant garlic in early fall, you may sometimes end up with a small amount of green growth above the soil line before winter.
These first green leaves may die if exposed to very cold temperatures, however, cloves will sprout new leaves in the spring.
GARLIC VARIETIES TO GROW
The history of garlic is long and complicated. Originally from Central Asia, it has been cultivated in the Mediterranean for over 5,000 years.
Gladiators ate garlic before the battle, and Egyptian slaves are said to have consumed it to give them the strength to build the pyramids. There are two different types of garlic, although some consider elephant garlic to be the third type. Elephant garlic is actually a member of the onion family, but it is a type of leek.
It has very large bulbs with very few cloves, three or four, and it has a sweet and chewy onion/garlic flavor and a similar mine hence the confusion.
Garlic is one of 700 varieties of the Allium, or onion, family. The two different types of garlic are the softneck (Allium sativum) and hard neck (Allium ophioscorodon), which is sometimes called neck stiffness.
HARDNECK GARLIC
Hard-necked garlic (Allium sativum ophioscorodon) tends to have more flavor than its soft-necked cousins. They are characterized by solid woody centre stems and a long flower stalk (scape) that twists and turns, usually twice. They tend to have four to twelve lobes per bulb.
This solid wood leg in the centre of the lamp tells you it’s Hardneck
Scalloped garlic can sometimes be hot or hot. Others say they are spicier, more complex, and more “winged”. The porcelain, rocambole and stripe purple varieties are part of the hard neck family.
Stiff neck garlic tends to grow best in areas with very cold winters, as it requires a longer period of spawning (i.e. they need a long, cold winter to be dormant in order to bloom in the spring).
The most common type of tough garlic is “Rocambole,” which has large, easy-to-peel cloves and has a stronger flavor than soft-necked garlic.
The soft, easy-to-peel skin reduces the shelf life to about four to five months. Unlike soft-necked garlic, hard-necked shoots send out flowering stems, or scabs, that become woody. Types of stiff neck garlic to grow to include:
- ‘Chesnok Red’
- ‘German White’
- ‘Polish Hardneck’
- ‘Persian Star’
- ‘Purple Stripe’
- ‘Porcelain’
(1) Thin-neck garlic. Note the number of lobes and the amount of central stem lost.
(2) Garlic with a hard neck.
If you are in a farmers’ market and find pink / purple garlic bulbs on the flesh of garlic cloves and delicate skins, you are probably looking for hard-necked garlic. . Buy it immediately. You want them in your life and in your stomach.
I use them for roasting with more game meats, like duck or venison, as well as for salad dressings with other fatty ingredients, like mustard or apple cider vinegar. If you are making olive oil or garlic vinegar, use hard neck garlic if there is garlic to add flavor. This pink blush under the fragile skin: it’s not awkward, it’s tough
SOFTNECK GARLIC
Soft-necked garlic (Allium sativum sativum) is thought to have evolved from tough-necked garlic and includes most of the garlic you see in large supermarkets.
Since it lacks the flowering stem of tough garlic, it produces a lot of cloves – sometimes as many as eight, and sometimes as many as thirty or more cloves.
Softneck Garlic is great all-purpose garlic that works well with almost any dish.
If you like to eat or use raw or lightly cooked garlic, you will likely choose a soft-necked variety. If you’re making a simple marinade where garlic has a distinct flavor, switch to soft-necked garlic. It tastes more herbal and vegan and does not have the sting of its stiff neck siblings.
Most processed garlic foods, such as garlic powder and spices, come from soft-necked garlic. Artichoke (the breed that sells in supermarkets) and Silverskin (the kind you’ll see braided most often) are two types of soft-necked garlic.
Among the soft-necked varieties, there are two common types of garlic: artichoke and silvery leather. These two common types of garlic are sold in the supermarket and you may have used them.
Artichoke is named for its similarity to an artichoke vegetable, with several layers containing up to 20 cloves. They are white to yellowish-white in color with a thick, hard-to-peel outer layer. The beauty of this is its long shelf life – up to eight months. Some types of artichoke garlic include:
- Applegate
- California Early
- California Late
- Polish Red
- Red Toch
- Early Red Italian
- Galiano
- Italian Purple
- Lorz Italian
- Inchelium Red
- Italian Late
Silver leather is highly productive and adaptable to many climates and is the type of garlic used for garlic braids. Types of garlic plants intended for silver leather include.
- Polish White
- Chet’s Italian Red
- Kettle River Giant.
WHAT IS GARLIC CLASSIFIED AS
Garlic (Allium sativum) is classified as a vegetable by botanists.
Along with shallots, leeks, and chives, it is a member of the onion family (2).
Any edible portion of a herbaceous plant, such as the roots, leaves, stems, and bulbs, is considered a vegetable.
Garlic is a bulbous plant with a tall stem and long leaves.
Although the plant’s leaves and blossoms are edible, the bulb, which contains 10–20 cloves, is the most commonly consumed part. It’s covered in a papery husk, which is usually removed before eating.
