Garlic and What I Learned in China

I love garlic and use it frequently in my cooking.  I have attempted to grow it, but have not been very successful at it. In the past I managed it in a garden, but my "in pot" garden is not always as good as I would like.  

When I was in China in December, I saw some strange things on a window sill.  Garlic growing in glass jars.

When I returned to Australia I eventually got around to trying it myself.  In three glass jars I put some cotton wool - and sat some garlic bulbs on the cotton wool, watered them and kept watching and waiting.

After a few weeks inside the house, I put them outside, and watered as often as I remembered, but nothing happened.

Then I brought one of the jars inside, and perhaps it is because it enjoyed the music, or the conditions were better, but they started to sprout.




I still have two jars outside on the veranda and I note one is sprouting now, but the one I brought indoors has much more growth in it.  In fact, there are about six bulbs sprouting.



I will watch and see how it all develops.  My Chinese friend says they sometimes use the green leaves too in cooking, and not the bulb.  

I am going to experiment with shallots too - as this should work also, especially as often we use the green leaves.



So, another glass jar and more cotton wool, and some "old" shallots (I use the ones on the left) and will see how it works.  I get annoyed that when I buy a bunch of shallots I don't use them all at once and some go to waste.  The shallot photos were not taken by me, but on a Coles image site.  I hope they don't mind.

One of the challenges of living on one's own is that often we have to buy product, which would last a family a day or two, but for just one, there is often a lot of waste.  I am a happy Coles Supermarket customer, but take care when purchasing that I reduce my waste.

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