Porcelains

Hardneck 4-6 cloves per bulb

Porcelains are the quintessential Northern-adapted garlic family. Their origins are in the Caucasus Mountains, with American-grown cultivars largely coming from central and northern Europe. They've done very well when transplanted to the northern parts of North America. Their large cloves work well for roasting up large amounts easily, or chopping and dicing, but don't fit so handily in garlic presses.

Many farmers and gardeners rely on them for their ability to size up and respond to fertilizer, but their drawback is that they usually have 4 to 6 cloves per bulb, meaning that you have to save 1/4 to 1/6 of your crop for seed each year. In my experience from the early years, they also seem to be the most resilient to being grown in acidic soils, so if you're all about that leaf litter, chuck some Porcelains in there! I also feel that they did best when forced to scrounge for their own fertility (i.e. when you're not a careful fertilizer of your garden). This probably comes from their larger cloves sending deeper roots than most other varieties.

The plants create TONS of biomass, weighing twice that of a Rocambole's leaves, so they look majestic in the garden and shade out weeds quite well. They have a mid to late season harvest with very large scapes- the ideal scapes for grilling.