We like hardnecks for the scapes in pesto and stir-fry.

Here in our cold climate, 'Siberian' withstands any and all weather with great yields and flavor, hard to peel, 'Chesnok Red' good yields and flavor, peeling eh, 'Bogatyr' fine flavor, hardish to peel, 'German White' good yields and good flavor.

If you continue to plant out only the largest cloves your yields will improve, but some vars only have 4-5 cloves/head whereas others yield more. Tradeoff on flavor and all that. 'Music' and 'Duganski' replacing some vars we don't care for.

Dan

I grow about 10-15 garlics, and try several new varieties each year. My regulars are: Bogatyr (H), Carpati (S), Chet's Italian Red (S), Chrysalis Purple (H), Georgian Crystal (H), Georgian Fire (H), Premium Northern White (H), Ron's Single Center (S), Samarkand (a.k.a. Persian Star) (H), and Special Idaho (H).

Hardnecks do better here in the North, but I've had good luck with Artichoke softnecks as well. My two favorites are "Ron's Single Center" (hot Artichoke softneck w/ large cloves) and "Special Idaho" (Rocambole hardneck). I like "Bogatyr" for its large cloves. "Chet's Italian Red" (Artichoke softneck) has the smallest cloves of any garlic I grow... but consistently one of the highest yields, and makes a good garlic powder.

Two new varieties planted this year show great promise, "Estonian Red" (hardneck w/HUGE cloves), and "Kettle River Giant" (large-bulbed softneck w/large pure white cloves). I'm hoping they taste as good as they look.

You'll get (and find) more & better answers on the Allium Forum, where garlic is a frequent topic of discussion.

Thanks Zeedman I'll wander over there and take a look, I'm always looking for a couple of good ones to try. I only grow 1 or 2 new to me varieties each year plus 1 or 2 favorites, not having space for more than that. Over the years I've grown the following...
Chinese
Italian
Spanish Roja
Porcelain
Tibetan
Thai
Korean Purple
Music...new this year
Persian Star...new this year
Salt Spring and a couple more, names escape me at the moment.

Annette

Chesnok Red is my favorite of the few I've tried... nice, rich flavor but not too harsh/sharp, and fairly easy to peel. REALLY good roasted!

I grow Siberian and Northern White, plus another unknown hardneck from the farmer market. But after all these years, who knows what I have, since every year I pick the biggest 35-40 heads for replanting.

Tidbits about offseason garlic crops:

1) scapes can not be frozen without blanching, they completely lose flavor if frozen raw.

2) I always let a couple of heads go to seed and scatter the seeds around the garden to get garlic shoots in February-March. Highly recommended.

Annette, I've peeled lot of garlic over the years...
Then I stopped bothering. I discovered that aside from removing the really thick outer skin, peeling it was a waste of time and the skins just dissolve when you cook it.
I use a microplane grater just for garlic and ginger.
I mainly grow Printanor, a big, commercial silverskin.

We never freeze our scapes, as they never last that long. We make pesto out of them - the stronger vars are very powerful the first day and then the pesto mellows out after a couple days. We have started scheduling a game night in spring to share scape pesto with everyone.

Anyway, again, part of the choice is to grow hardnecks to use the scapes.

Dan

All of our garlic scapes are used up pretty quick as I don't have that many, mostly in stir fries. How far down does everyone cut their scapes, my neighbor pulls the leaves apart so he can get all of the scape I have always cut just above the leaves. As for using garlic I very seldom slice it I usually put it through a garlic press. Yea or nay to garlic presses?

Annette

Out of the seven varieties I've grown, Music has quickly become my favorite. It consistently provides very large bulbs that store nicely if cured well...it's bigger, so it needs a bit more time to cure.

In second place is German Extra Hardy. This is another hardneck variety that stores very well, but the bulbs aren't as large. I hear that GEH resists heaving in the winter too.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Garden

Please excuse my OT culinary detours people...
Annette, I find presses a real sod to clean, but crushing/grating in some way will maximise garlics'
health benefits.

Not really OT ;o) but I find putting water in garlic press before putting in cloves helps cleaning. I cut my scapes down pretty far but am not a stickler for exact cutting spot. We use scapes in stir-fry as well, and the BH likes them in place of regular garlic when sauteing onion for sauces.

Dan

My cousin gave me my favorite garlic a few years ago. When I asked him what it was called, he said they call it Up North, because that's where they live. So that's what I call it. It's a hard neck, very white, not too hot and has 6 - 7 very large cloves in a single ring per bulb.

Regarding scapes, toss with olive oil and a sprinkling of salt and pepper, and then throw them on the grill until they are a bit charred. Absolute heaven!! I plant more garlic so we have more scapes to grill.

Garlic press, I have one but am not impressed. I'm better bashing and chopping with a chef's knife.

Steve

I like to bash them with the knife too. I've found that a little age usually helps in peeling, I think maybe the clove shrinks a tiny bit as it dries and separates from the skin.

My favorite for yield is incheltum red, it makes monster heads of monster cloves.

Generally I use garlic as a minor ingredient, so I can't really say much about the flavor of various varieties.

I gave up on 'Inchelium Red' at our location, others I know like it a lot. I'm going to try scapes on the grill, per skeip's reply. Yuh-ummm!

There is a grower in WA state that has quite a catalogue and has adapted varieties for Cascadia, BTW. Soil moisture makes a difference.

Dan

Thanks Steve, those garlic scapes done on the grill sound really yummy I'll definitely try that next summer, already I'm wishing I planted more garlic.
We're having a mild spell right now maybe I'll try and sneak a few more in. Nothing ventured nothing gained :).

Annette

My first year growing garlic, but ate a few killarney red while planting. Quite nice heat, cant wait to harvest them.