Australian garlic

"So many benefits in this humble little plant" Nick Diamentopoulos

Whenever we go to France - no more alas - we always at some point early in the process buy some fresh garlic like this in a market somewhere - maybe even in a hypermarket - and I have always mourned the lack of fresh garlic here.

You can grow your own of course, and I have indeed done that a long time ago, although my memory is that it didn't separate out into cloves, or barely anyway. I should try again, as I believe it's a good companion plant for some things. In fact I just read in an SBS article by Bron Maxabella that "You plant on the shortest day of the year, and you harvest at the longest," so maybe I should give it a go later today, as the shortest day was just a couple of days ago. I think you just plant the cloves. Well I'm sure it's more complicated than that but that's what I will try. I did just weed my veggie patch after all.

Anyway today I'm continuing my attack on the pile of books and magazines on my desk, and a page that I had earmarked in May's Coles Magazine, about their supplier of garlic - Nick Diamentopoulos, shown above with his partner/wife? Steve on one of his many farms. I was interested in Australian garlic, because there really wasn't any a few decades ago and I always wondered why not. Coles - and Woolworths - always do at least one small piece about a supplier in their magazines. It's always a feel-good piece that paints them in a rosy light supporting the farmers and producers of Australia. Nevertheless we should indeed look at the people who supply us with food - even the now massive companies, because they all had to begin somewhere and surprisingly often it was in somebody's backyard or kitchen.

In this case the person in question is Nick Diamentopoulos - an industrial chemist for 10 years, but always interested in growing things, who became interested in garlic. He discovered that the garlic grown at that time was (a) not suitable for growing in Australia (b) was infested with viruses. And so he set off around the world to find the best garlics - there are around 2000 different kinds - to grow here. Beginning near Mildura in 1994 - or was it 1998? - the nineties anyway, he has grown his business to be the largest grower in Australia, with farms from South Australia to the Northern Territory, and his company is now holding 292 varieties and growing 12 commercially - well as of 2022 when the SBS article was published. Below are some of them.

In the 1990s, tariffs were removed here in Australia, which was a major blow to the Australian garlic industry of the time, because this meant that there was a massive influx of imported garlic - mostly Chinese which was well below the price of Australian garlic, but also often processed with chemicals that were banned in Australia. The Australian garlic growing industry was almost wiped out. It was this to which Nick Diamentopoulos reacted, and which has led to a major growth in garlic farmers around the country, from small scale farms selling to farmers markets to large-scale farming, and also to Coles now selling only Australian garlic - due to customer demand they say - and Woolworths almost.

In an ABC report Nick Diamantopulous, explained that Australia is in a unique position to be able to supply garlic year- round because:

"Overseas, they have a four-week harvest window because they've just got one little climatic zone. It's quite interesting, very unique, what we're doing in Australia. Not many other countries can do [it]. Harvest typically starts in the Northern Territory and Queensland in September, followed by New South Wales and Victoria, finishing in South Australia in December and January." ABC

The man is obviously a bit of a powerhouse. He is now adding to the company's portfolio by making 4 different health products - capsules for health and well-being, congestion relief, immune support and cardio and heart health and they make garlic paste too.

As for that fresh garlic, I was actually a bit mortified when I found photos of the kind of garlic I was buying in French markets, as it actually didn't look fresh - although let me assure you it was fresh. Because fresh garlic is softer and milder - see below my market garlic and some from a website called Chocolate and Zucchini which tells you everything you need to know about fresh garlic including how to make this garlic paste from those outer white leaves.

It's definitely not what you buy here anyway.

To conclude. The Coles Magazine article is of course, just to promote Coles' good citizen qualities, and also the seasonal produce in store, which is boosted by recipes - in this case two classics from Jessica Brook, one of their regular recipe developers and one to watch. I have made a version of the chicken dish way back when and I can verify that it is indeed delicious and not garlicky. The prawns, wonderful though they look, cannot be made in this house: Smoky garlic butter prawns and Roast chicken with 40 garlic cloves and greens

One small item removed from my pile.

YEARS GONE BY

June 23

2024 - Nothing

2023 - Watermelon radish - tastes of Cape Schanck

2022 - Too many Italian cookbooks

2021 - Takeaway food - a brief history

2020 - Deleted

2019 - Is ignorance bliss?

2018 - Nothing

2017 - Nothing