I absolutely love the flavor of garlic, and it’s a key ingredient in many of the dishes we prepare on our Taste of Jamaica Tour. Guests also get to use garlic during the cooking experience, learning how it adds depth and aroma to traditional meals.
Interestingly, although garlic is widely used in Jamaican cooking, we’ve never grown it on the farm. I’m also not certain that garlic is commonly farmed in Jamaica at all. That makes this experiment even more exciting for us.
I recently received my first planting of Chesnok Red garlic, and I couldn’t wait to get started. Some of the bulbs had already begun to sprout, which is a sign that they’re ready to be planted, so they went straight into the soil.
Chesnok Red is a hardneck garlic variety, originally from Eastern Europe. It’s especially known for its rich, slightly sweet flavor and is often considered one of the best garlics for roasting. When cooked, it becomes creamy and mild, making it perfect for sauces, roasted vegetables, and slow-cooked dishes. Hardneck garlic also produces a flower stalk called a scape, which is edible and delicious. Garlic scapes can be sautéed, grilled, or used in pestos, giving us an extra harvest from the same plant.
Because hardneck garlic typically prefers cooler climates, this planting is very much an experiment. If it grows well for us, we’ll expand into other types later in the year, including softneck garlic, which is more commonly grown in warmer regions and is the type most often used for braiding.
While researching varieties through Seed Savers Exchange, I was amazed by how many types of garlic exist. Knowing how much we enjoy trying new crops, I can already tell this is just the beginning. One variety I’m especially excited about is giant elephant garlic, which seems well-suited to our climate and feels like a must-grow for the farm.
This is all part of our ongoing journey to grow more of what we cook, and to share that story with our guests from soil to plate.
