Late July brings an abundance of crops from our garden. Bright green and yellow beans, the beginning of a prolific summer squash crop, new red potatoes and my favorite – dozens of heads of garlic ready to be dug, dried and savored during the next year.

While most vegetables are planted in the spring, planting a crop of garlic takes a bit more preparation and forethought. Although a crop can be planted in early spring, it’s far better to plant it in late October because the crop will be much larger.

We have grown a variety of garlic for many years, and every crop has supplied us with enough to last almost until the next year’s offering comes in.

Every year, we grow my favorite, which is a strain developed in this country called Music. Unlike most other varieties, the heads are large and easy to peel. (By the way, while elephant garlic is marketed as garlic, it really isn’t. It’s more closely related to leeks.)

Growing garlic can be a real money saver, even at $20 to $25 a pound for seed garlic, particularly if you use it often. We use it in pasta sauces, of course, but in many other ways. I add a whole clove to each jar of my homemade dill pickles, mince it into virtually every winter soup and stew, rub roasts and salad bowls with it, and add it to many ethnic dishes including as Chinese, Mexican and Mediterranean.

Garlic is an onion blessed with all kinds of culinary and medicinal qualities and carries with it an abundance of legends.

The ancient Romans believed garlic could cure dozens of ailments, and add strength to laborers. Soldiers were forced to eat it for courage. In Egypt, the pyramid builders were also required to eat it, and in Greece, it was believed to be a soul-cleansing agent for convicted criminals. In early Europe, many believed it could ward off vampires.

Although the pungent bulb doesn’t have all those virtues, many studies have shown that it could lower cholesterol. Whether garlic is a magic elixir of sorts is really almost irrelevant. Just think how bland so many dishes would be without it.

Growing garlic is not that difficult.

A pound of hardneck seed garlic, like Music, which provides four to six heads, will plant a 20-foot row. The smaller varieties, like Deerfield purple, or many types of German and Polish garlic, will provide enough cloves to plant a 30-foot row. Don’t plant garlic purchased in a grocery store. It was not raised for seed and may have been treated with a growth inhibitor to extend its shelf life.

To plant:

Separate heads into cloves. Thoroughly till and fertilize the garlic patch. Manure works best.

Plant each clove, root side down, and cover with one-inch of soil.

Allow four inches between cloves, and 12 to 16 inches between rows.

Cover the planted cloves and about a foot on each side, with newspapers.

Top the newspapers with three to six inches of loose hay.

This mulch will prevent freezing during our cold winters, and keeps most weeds at bay, as well.

In the spring, as the snow melts, sprouts will likely be seen poking through the mulch. Keep weed free. A light dose of fertilizer may be added at this time, but chances are none will be needed and the garlic will grow just fine.

To harvest:

Keep the growing plants as weed free as possible until about the end of July. Garlic “leaves,” which look like giant onion tops, could reach three to four feet tall.

Curly tops, called scapes, often appear as the harvesting season approaches. Cut them off. Energy that would go into them will not go into growing garlic heads. Tiny garlic heads may appear on them.

When the bottom three leaves have turned brown, usually at the end of July, chances are the garlic are ready. To pick, insert a pointed or narrow blade spade into the soil about six inches from each plant. Loosen the soil, then pull each head. The heads should come out intact.

Gently shake or wipe off soil; do not remove the leaves yet.

To dry:

Place each plant, in a single layer, on a screen, such as chicken wire, in a shaded area, or a well-ventilated garage. Garlic should not receive any direct sun.

Let the whole plants dry for several weeks.

To preserve:

Cut the stalk off, leaving an inch or two, for hardnecked garlic. For softnecked garlic, leave as much of the stalk as possible, and use it to braid the garlic heads. For each variety, clip off the roots. After drying, these roots will be wiry and easy to clip.

Hang braided garlic; store hardnecked heads loosely in a basket or other airy container. Keep both in a cool, dry area. Do not put in the refrigerator, nor store the garlic where it is moist or apt to freeze. We store ours in a hall off the kitchen that isn’t heated, but doesn’t freeze, either.

If dried and stored properly, the garlic should last almost a year.

If it starts sprouting, that means it could soon start to rot. To preserve these heads, roast them at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour, contingent on the size of the head and when the garlic juices start to appear.

To prepare for roasting, lay each garlic head on its side, then cut off small sections of the stem end until each clove is exposed.

Place each prepared head, root side down, on a baking sheet. We like to drizzle a bit of olive oil over the exposed cloves. Then bake.

After baking, break the head apart and squeeze out the soft paste-like contents of each clove.

Place the garlic paste in freezer bags and freeze. This will keep for a couple of months, until the next crop is harvested and dried.

To honour

Garlic’s intense flavor and aroma is reflected in this 18th-century poem written by a Dr. William Kitchiner, an Englishman who cooked for many European royals.

“If Leekes you like, but do their smell dislike

Eat Onyons, and you shall not smell the Leeke;

If you of Onyons would the scent expell,

Eat Garlicke, that shall downe the Onyons’ smell.”