Locally grown hardneck garlic hits Iowa farmers markets in July and August. (Photo: Getty) By Mary Jane Miller You know those iconic braids of garlic? I can’t make those with the garlic I grow in my garden — and I don’t care. Braided garlic is made with softneck garlic, which prefers warmer climates. It has a mild, sweet flavor, but when you get to the center of a bulb, you come upon tiny sliver-sized cloves that are a pain to peel. Here in the Midwest, we grow hardneck garlic — Allium sativum, to be exact. Hardneck garlic has a bold, pungent, highly complex flavor with spicy and earthy notes. I choose the biggest, most perfect cloves to plant late in the fall. In spring, green shoots poke through their blanket of straw mulch. Around June, the plants try to flower, sending up curled edible stalks called scapes. Every garlic grower knows to snap those stalks off before they straighten out, get tough and bloom. This directs the plant’s energy into producing a larger bulb instead of seeds. Don’t miss the scapes. Look for garlic scapes at your farmers market. They are delicious sautéed in butter or tossed into a stir-fry. Their flavor is mild, almost like asparagus with just a hint of garlic. They also make wonderful pesto. When the plants begin to die back in late July, the garlic is pulled and hung in bunches or spread out to dry and cure. By August, fresh local garlic should be appearing at farmers markets. Snap it up. Try different varieties. If you shop the market, here’s what you’ll see: There are three main hardneck varieties. Porcelain garlic is known for its satiny white wrappers and huge cloves. Purple Stripe has vibrant streaked wrappers and a spicy flavor that is especially good roasted. Rocambole garlic is prized for its incredibly rich, complex taste with thin skins that don’t store as well. My favorite is a porcelain variety called Music, named after Al Music, a garlic grower in Canada. Store it well. Properly cured garlic keeps well in a cool, dry, dark place until about April, when it either begins to sprout or dries out. I store mine in a paper bag in the pantry. Never refrigerate garlic; it thinks winter has arrived and will sprout even faster. By the way, that green sprout is not bitter, as some have said. It’s actually sweet and mild. One last tip: Hardneck garlic bulbs are large, usually with four to 10 hefty cloves in each head. Remember that woody stem in the center of the bulb? Hold the garlic in your hand, stem side up, then whack the top firmly against a cutting board or counter. The stiff stem will pop right out the bottom, making the cloves easy to separate. If you want to roast a whole head, simply run your knife around the stem from the top, leaving the stem in place. A kitchen knife won’t cut through that woody center anyway. Contributing writer Mary Jane Miller of Indianola has worked as a food writer, chef, cooking teacher and food scientist. This week, she also cooked for about 60 opera leaders from around the country who are in town to see “King Roger.” ...read more read less