Way back in June, when we were celebrating Eat Drink Local Week, each of us picked a seasonal ingredient to wax poetic over in honor of the event. Our editor, Gabrielle Langholtz, didn’t have to think twice about her selection: Hudson Valley hardneck garlic, found pretty much only at farmstands, garden plots and Greenmarkets, since more mainstream grocers stock only the softneck varieties grown en masse in California or Asia.
Back then, however, the stems were new and green and subtle, nearly all edible. (Read her ode to the allium in spring right here.) But now a few months later the first fully mature specimens are coming into market, and Langholtz just appeared on the WNYC show Last Chance Foods (where we also explained lovage last spring) to explain what hardneck garlic is and why it’s so great raw, and also to urge us to get it now, while the freshest and the biggest bulbs are still available. Listen in to the show right here, and ready the breath mints.
