If you are looking for a cold hardy variety of garlic for fresh eating look no further than 'German White'. There is no reputable or fun backstory about how this particular variety got its name. It is not even historically established that this variety comes from Germany either. All that is currently known is it is a Eurasian garlic clone brought to North American and cultivated for commercial practices. Due to its reliability, size and hardiness, German White” has become well known to growers. 

It is hardneck porcelain type, characterized by a white wrapper resembling porcelain pottery. Porcelain garlic generally has higher levels of allicin which make it pungent and flavorful, excellent for eating raw. The cloves are easy to peel and I appreciate only needing one or two cloves due to their large size! The texture of this type of garlic is less ideal for roasting or using in soup then softneck varieties such as Inchelium.

Plants will be tall with light green leaves and a hard looping scape, an excellent secondary crop to the garlic bulb. 'German White" matures mid season, generally during the beginning to middle of July, depending on your climate. Just be sure you have a couple of green leaves and that the bottom 4-5 leaves are fully dry before harvesting. You can always harvest one plant if you are not sure they are ready. Pull back the wrapper and check to see if the cloves are fully divided.

Once mature, bulb wrappers are moderately tight and bright white with violet stripes. The firm bulbs are large in comparison to most other hardneck varieties with approximately 4-6 cloves per bulb  Bulbs will store well for 6-8 months.

One of the most compelling attributes for this variety is that it is super cold tolerant and does well throughout many climates from Minnesota to Pennsylvania to Colorado. So if you have hard winters this might be the right choice for you. ‘German White’ grows well here in Southern Oregon and we have relatively mild winters.