Canadian Wild Garlic
•Posted on April 13 2017
![Canadian Wild Garlic](http://www.wildfoods.ca/cdn/shop/articles/f879249fc58b0fb1780ea2b45d365f08_{width}x.jpg?v=1614876695)
Wild Garlic (Allium Canadense)
Wild Garlic bulb sprouting - Photo by Dyson Forbes
Wild garlic, or Allium Canadense, is a widespread North American garlic variety that comes packed with a real punch. It is smaller and a bit stronger in flavour than varieties you find at the supermarket. Many parts of the wild garlic plant can be used throughout the year.
Wild Garlic shoots - Photo by Dyson Forbes
Early in the spring when wild leeks and Morel are popping out of the ground, before the grasses have really taken off, you will find lush green clumps of wild garlic poking out of meadows. The young shoots make a wonderful stand-in for green onions with a distinctive garlic flavour.
Wild Garlic shoots plated for sale at markets - Photo by Dyson Forbes
Every year we dig some up and put it in pots so people at markets can either reintroduce it to areas they live in, or try to grow some to harvest the bulbs and scapes. While transplanted wild garlic usually disappears the year you plant it, it will often come back for years after you have introduced it. Mature plants will develop scapes, and if these are trimmed they will develop beautiful garlic bulbs. Properly cared for wild garlic can come back year after year.
Wild garlic thriving on the crest of the Niagara escarpment - Photo by Dyson Forbes
Wild garlic can grow in many places. On the crest of the Niagara Escarpment, growing in clay and limestone, we see nearly all the green in this above photo is wild garlic.
Garlic scapes - Photo by Dyson Forbes
Picking garlic scapes - Photo by Dyson Forbes
In July you start to see the flower buds, also called scapes, twisting like pigtails off the top of the plant. You can pick these, to tell the plant to put all its energy into the bulb, or let them develop into the seed heads. Picking scapes is easy, just snap off the plant like you would with asparagus. Older scapes might need peeling and blanching, but young ones can be cut small and put raw in salads or sauteed and paired with other foods.
Wild Garlic seed heads ready to pick and spread - Photo by Dyson Forbes
It is easy to pick the garlic seed heads, Just be sure to scatter them around. The seed heads are like little concentrated bulbs, they have a ton of spicy flavour and are perfect for use in soups or for flavouring brines or in place of chunks of garlic.
Wild Garlic seed head - Photo by Dyson Forbes
Freshly dug up wild Garlic bulb - Photo by Dyson Forbes
Come autumn, wild garlic bulbs are ready to harvest. Remember what patches you removed the scapes from and dig them up. Tilling the dirt and leaving premature bulbs will help more come up the following year. This is also a great time to spread some of the garlic seeds that have formed where you left flowers intact.
More Posts
-
Get to know the mos...
Autumn is the absolute best time for mushrooms, after a year of growth the cool nights trigger mycelium to shoot out new fruiting bodies and the fo...
Read More -
Learn about Canadia...
Over the years we have been expanding our selection of sustainably hand-harvested Canadian sea vegetables. Surrounded by water on three sides, we C...
Read More
Comments
3 Comments
All the photos come from the same small patch of wild garlic. The larger bulb is a result of the scape being removed whereas the bulb in the first photo is when the scape has not been removed.
There is a plant called Wild Garlic (Allium canadense) and your 1st photo maybe it. But I think most of your other photos are of ‘commercial’ garlic that is growing in the wild. I think the species is Allium sativum.
At our home on the Bruce Peninsula we had wild garlic growing in our flower beds as well as growing wild. I would always use them for cooking, salads and when the seeds came I really enjoyed picking them and spreading them.