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Spring is officially here!! What better way to herald its arrival than by sprouting, planting and eating some garlic. And taking a video of the process and results!
I had a few garlic cloves beginning to sprout while still in their head, so I decided to try something I’d recently seen posted on Instagram: Root them in water! (You can tell by all of the exclamation points that this kind of thing is exciting to me :))
Why do this, isn’t fall the best time to plant garlic? Yes, fall tends to be a better time to plant garlic, but you can really plant it anytime. I like getting it into the ground in the fall because it’s a tradition, plus it also helps me track its growing cycle, ie. knowing when to dig it up.
The other “why” is to simply have some delicious garlic scapes (shoots) to eat now! Whether you keep the cloves in a glass in your kitchen or plant them outside, you can snip off a few scapes to add to salads, stir frys, eggs, or as a garnish. YUM.
BONUS Why: This is a great activity to do with kids because they can do each step. Plus, the wait time to see results of their “planting” is very short. It took only 5 days for all of this roots and shoots action to come about in my glass. Activate wonder in children and they will choose to learn throughout their lives, be interested & interesting, and never be bored. What a gift to them.
Now for the HOW:
1. Separate garlic cloves from the head and peel off the outer paper on each clove.
2. Stand the cloves root side down, in a wide glass or jar.
3. Add water to cover root end and a bit up the clove. Avoid submerging the whole clove.
4. Keep an eye on maintaining the water level over the root ends and watch the magic happen!
Once rooted, either plant outside in the garden or in a container.
Have fun with this and please share your experience and any kid quotes in the Comments.
May your gardens grow with love and care, benefitting us all.
