Shandong Purple, Pre-Busted Cloves

September/October 2022 Offering Only- around 8 pounds of my 2022 harvest of Shandong Purple was located in an excessively wet and mucky portion of a bed that I couldn't get to after August rains, resulting in dirt that clung rather permanently to the bottoms of the bulbs while. Rather than attempt to clean them, I will be busting them apart to individual cloves, for immediate planting or kitchen processing.

Orders will be accepted from September 25th to  October 8th, and will ship on October 11th at the latest, via my usual postal service- USPS Priority Mail which makes it to most locations in the US within 2-3 days of shipping. This will be "just the nick of time" for much of North American garlic planting season, or to accompany any of you doing food preserving of your final garden harvests.

Approximate Cloves Per Pound-

I took a random sample of 0.722 kilograms of bulbs, busted them, and got 0.676 kilograms of cloves. I counted these out to about 131 cloves- which converted to Imperial math, means about 88 cloves per pound. This is a single sample and all orders will have some variation. This is approximately 5.2 grams per clove.

Important to note, is that Shandong Purple frequently grows "Siamese" cloves- two cloves that often share a basal plate, making them difficult to safely separate. I will not separate them here, since that risks damage, and if successful, makes them likely to dry out if not quickly planted. Personally, I plant them as-is and have two medium sized bulbs as a result. Other folks may attempt to safely separate the cloves- I find the damage done is worse than just planting them together. The choice will be left to you!

Variety Description

Shandong Purple has a nice raw heat that quickly fades, yet the most subtle hazelnut flavor when cooked through whole. I lace shepherd's pies with Shandong cloves whose creamy texture works perfect with whipped potatoes. Great grower in the garden, too!

Another Asiatic that has taken time to adapt, but now Shandong Purple is my favorite of the whole family, forming absolutely beautiful  glazed-pottery-esque bulb papers. I started with 20 plants- 19 died in the first winter. I carefully tended the one survivor, a runt that hadn’t sprouted as vigorously before the north winds of the polar vortex whacked us. The one survivor grew to a single round that summer. I planted the round, and got one sturdy, beautiful plant that I let go to scape. I planted the 7 cloves and the 5 bulbils and got exactly 12 gorgeous plants with beautiful bulbs as described. Several years later, it's now one of my most trusted, productive types. Can't recommend enough!

Click here to see the only other current offering available, pre-busted Pskem River cloves