Big Garlic Flavor Comes From Small Bulbs

A big clove from a small purple stripe garlic bulb. 

It's true: Size doesn't matter, at least not when it comes to cooking and heirloom gourmet garlic.

Small heirloom bulbs can yield garlic cloves as thick as your thumb or thicker. And those cloves are packed full of garlic flavor. We know some professional chefs who prefer smaller garlic bulbs because they believe the flavor's more intense and concentrated.

Thick garlic cloves from the small bulb shown in the background.

We use cloves from small bulbs when we cook at the farm, and we sell them, too, as culinary garlic. We also plant cloves from smaller bulbs to grow as green garlic.

Don't get us wrong--we love growing big garlic bulbs. They're wonderful for seed. But good things really do come in small packages. And when it comes to cooking, that includes heirloom gourmet garlic.