'A' is for Ail

12/03/2003
'A' is for Ail

Your very own potager may be under a foot of snow right now, but that's no reason to get lazy. I propose that while we're taking time off from our outdoor work, we plunge headlong into the lore and history of our priceless food plants. So, to keep you from hibernating through the winter, I'm going to take you through exactly that, starting with A for Ail, which is "garlic" in French.

This 'Abecedaire des Plantes Potagères' (food garden ABC's) is a new idea for me, which like all my ideas, is likely to evolve as it goes along. I am inspired and translate and paraphrase liberally here from a treasure of a new book in my personal French gardening library, L'Encyclopédie du Potager, the work of numerous extremely erudite authors, and published by Actes Sud. I have drawn heavily for this article from the chapter on garlic and onions by Jean-Luc Danneyrolles. Please give me feedback on whether you like this, hate it, or have ideas on other info to include, etc...

Okay, l'ail. That is pronounced like "eye", except with a sort of emphasized 'y' sound at the end, as in "aye-aye." Now you know where aioli came from--garlic (ail) and oil (oli), in languedoc, the old French of south-west France.

History and folklore. Garlic has been cultivated for more than 5000 years. I guess garlic breath is here to stay. Allium sativum is native to what is now Kirghizistan, just east of the Caspian Sea. Such is man's love for garlic that in a mere five millenia it has spread everywhere but the North and South Poles. Pretty much all the ancient civilizations loved garlic as soon as they got to know it. The sum spent to furnish the workers on the pyramid of Giza with garlic, onions, and radishes is engraved on the pyramid, and the ancient Egyptians grew enormous quantities of garlic.

Jews migrating from Egypt brought garlic to Palestine, and from there, the pungent plant became established throughout the Middle East and the Mediterranean. It was much cultivated in ancient Rome, although looked down on by high society for the horrible breath it produced. Virgil gives a recipe for a predessor of aioli: Take 4 cloves of garlic, some coriander, lovage, rue, salt, and rinds of cheese, and pound it all in a mortar. Add oil and vinegar to render it spreadable, and eat with bread and vegetables. Bon appetit!



By the 15th century, garlic had found its way into the potagers of the north of France. The French already were such garlic fanatics that there evolved a sort special sort of garlic peddler (called an ailler) who traveled through the countryside selling a sauce made of bread crumbs, pounded almonds, and garlic, which was eaten sort of like mustard. See my Paris Postcard on "Those Dirty French..." to imagine what this was like. Probably the smell of garlic just covered up a lot of more horrible smells.

Of course, then there was Henri IV, the garlic king. He was predestined to be this glorious future when his grandfather rubbed his baby lips with a clove of garlic and then gave him a few drops of yellow Jurançon wine. Baby Henri didn't seem to mind this at all. In fact, this rite of initiation must have given him a lifelong taste for garlic, for as an adult he reputedly ate so much of it that his perspiration reeked of the herb.

During the Middle Ages, garlic became appreciated not only as a vegetable but as a medicinal plant. In 1560, Champier, the personal doctor of François I admonished, "The inhabitants of Narbonne, Toulouse, and Bordeaux, all people of a hot and bilious temperament, like nothing so much as garlic in their food. Garlic has a strong heating effect, and these people are already hotheads enough." 'Nuff said.

Indeed, during the 16th century, the popularity of garlic began to recede from the north of France and to become concentrated in its southern regions of Languedoc, Provence, and Gascogne. This area became the crucible for the garlic-infused cuisine which has so influenced American cooking during the last 20 years.

During the 19th century, vegetable production reached a furious level throughout the rural regions of France. Garlic growers from the south came to the huge central market of Les Halles (now replaced by the wholesale market at Rungis) in Paris, and Parisians began to become garlic lovers. These garlic vendors (marchands d'ail)wore a sort of sweater that was traditional to their region, and which quickly became adopted by all the vegetable vendors of Les Halles as a mark of their trade. The pullover became known as a "chandail" (from (mar)-chand d'ail. This term persists today as a word for sweater, and is much more authentically French than the anglicism "pull" (short for "pullover") which is more common usage.

The French celebrate many garlic festivals, especially in the south, but even the French admit that the biggest of such celebrations is in Gilroy, California, the self-proclaimed Garlic Capital of the World. I do know that even when it's not festival time, you can get garlic ice cream in Gilroy, or you could the last time I passed through--and passed up the garlic ice cream.

Garlic has long been associated with magical powers as strong as its pungent aroma. Everyone's familiar with its power to ward off vampires. Here are some folk customs associated with these beliefs in Europe.

In Dragignan, in the south of France, garlic is roasted on the bonfires of St-Jean (summer solstice) and distributed to the villagers to protect them from fevers and vermin. Braids and wreaths of garlic are hung over house portals and in barns to ward off evil spirits. In Sicily, a garlic clove is placed in the bed of a woman giving birth to protect her and the newborn from evil.

Species of garlic. All garlics (and onions) are members of the Liliaceae, the lily family. The common garlic, in all its hardneck and softneck variations, is Allium sativum.

Allium scorodoprasum, known as rocambole, is a real curiosity. With a head composed of very small cloves which can be consumed like regular garlic (though tedious to peel), it produces a long flower stalk which midway through its trajectory of growth, twists and turns downward and then back up again, creating a loop. I've been unable to find any information about what the adaptive value of this curious phenomenon might be. Upon flowering, rocambole produces bulbils at the top of its stem, which, when they fall to the ground, root to become new plants. These bulbils have an extremely strong taste.

The origin of rocambole is unclear. However, when I was in Burma (Myanmar) this summer I noticed that all the garlic being sold in the markets was miniscule. Could it have been rocambole?

Allium ampeloprasum is "elephant garlic," with huge cloves but an insipid flavor (in the opinion of this cook). It is native to Asia, probably China.

Allium tuberosum is garlic chives, or Chinese chives. This is a wonderful plant for the herb garden, with a tidy clump of flat leaves which have a pleasant garlic/onion flavor. The white flowers are very pretty and edible, but watch out when they go to seed--you'll likely have seedlings everywhere.

Allium ursinum is for me the most interesting garlic. Known as bear leeks in Switzerland, and as bear garlic in France, this plant is a spring ephemeral which must be circumboreal, for it is also present in the woodlands of the eastern U.S., where it is the beloved "ramp" of folk cuisine. its handsome, wide, strap-like leaves have a powerful flavor that is between that of garlic and leeks. The pretty flowers are an epicurean delight in a salad.

Growing garlic. Growing garlic is not difficult, and will give you the benefit of enjoying green (young) garlic, a gustatory treat not found in stores. Plant garlic in deeply cultivated soil amended with compost or manure. Plant in fall or early winter. Break the garlic heads up into cloves, discarding the tiny interior cloves which will produce very puny heads, and plant the cloves 4 inches apart in rows about 10" apart (that's French spacing, which is highly intensive). Cover the cloves with about an inch of soil. The shoots should emerge in less than 2 weeks, unless the soil freezes solid right away.

No winter mulch is necessary except in the coldest zones (Zones 4 and colder). Keep your garlic weeded throughout the spring and early summer. No irrigation is necessary.

The trick is recognizing when to harvest your garlic. Depending on the variety you planted, your garlic may or may not send up flower stalks. If it does, you know harvest is near. In either case, watch for signs of senescence in your plants. When the leaves just begin to yellow, it's time to harvest. If you wait, as so many books advise, until the foliage actually starts to turn brown, you'll find your garlic with cloves already starting to open out, breaking the outer sheath of the bulb. This garlic is still usable, but will not keep nearly as long. Use any bulbs that have done this first.



Always harvest garlic by prying the heads out with a fork (hint: our weeding fork is the ideal tool for this.). Do not try to pull them out of the ground. Dry the heads in the garden, turning them frequently, for 3-4 days if it is not too hot. If it is, dry them on screens or layers of newspaper in a well-ventilated shady spot. Although many authors say not to do this, I always wash my garlic before drying it. How else can you remove all that soil?

When the garlic is dry, you can cut off the stems and store it in mesh bags. Or, you can braid the garlic in the traditional manner. In Provence, small bouquets of herbs and flowers are often incorporated in the garlic braids to make them even more beautiful.

You can also smoke garlic by hanging it in your fireplace. According to a Provençal market vendor specializing in this very item (smoked garlic), this process keeps the garlic from sprouting and makes it keep longer.

Want to experiment with how to grow gigantic real (not elephant) garlic? Okay, here's some French advice from Jean-Luc Danneyrolles. First, plant entire heads of garlic during the normal fall-winter planting period. At harvest time you'll have a supersized head of garlic with gigantic cloves. Want 'em even bigger. Take the cloves from this already gigantic garlic, and plant them in late spring (May). These cloves will grow into giant garlic bulbs which are not divided into cloves, but remain in single bulbs like those of onions. According to the author, if you leave them in the ground 3 or 4 years they become positively monstrous. At that point, you can put a call in to Guinness and tell them to bring their cameras.

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For a superb article on varieties of Allium sativum,, go to http://www.seedsofchange.com/digging/garlic.asp?UID=2003120312344069. Kudos to Erica Renaud, to my friend and colleague in my African projects, for coauthoring this along with photographer extraordinaire Scott Vlaun.

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Products of Interest:
'Rosier' weeding hook
Vallée Noire stoneware garlic jar
Extra large Provençal olive-wood mortar and pestle
Harvest basket--natural green willow