Growing Garlic- Boo

Since its Halloween tonight, it's totally appropriate to blog about my little garlics.  Let me be up front about where I am coming from:  the only reason I am growing garlic is because the other seedlings at the store looked really pathetic and I wanted to start my fall garden from seedlings and not bother with seeds.  So, I was not overly enthusiastic about growing garlic.  I mean, why would be?  Garlic is pretty cheap at the store and available year round.  So what is the point of "wasting" garden space with garlic?

I have no answers yet.  This garlic won't be ready for a few months.  The little plants are certainly growing on me.  Here is what I've learned about them:

As you probably have already figured out, each garlic clove is like a seed.  Plant the little dudes (or just leave a garlic in a cupboard for too long and it will sprout) and there you go.  However, there is a rub.  You really shouldn't just plant what you get from the store because often the garlics are treated with stuff so that they don't sprout and because they may not be adapted to grow locally.  But, if you have a sprouting garlic clove, what the heck, it never hurts to go ahead and stick in the dirt.

So, garlic is part of the onion family and is a cool weather crop-- hence, the fall garden.   Garlic needs a bit of a cold season in order for it to split into multiple bulbs.  Since I bought my plants from a nursery, I am unsure of whether it already had its cool season, but I am guessing, no.   Usually, you plant the garlic in the fall, the ground freezes and then in spring, it grows like crazy.  Now, I am totally confused because, there is very little chance that my garlic will freeze, also, it is already sprouted... hmm.  So perhaps they already did have their freeze.  According to my Internet search, you can trick the garlic by placing the clove in the fridge for 40 days, and then plant it.  Perhaps that is what the nursery did.  So many questions.  Oh well, if the garlic dies, I am out 4 bucks.  Time will tell.
I will be waiting anxiously for when at least 50% of the leaves turn brown.  Then I dig them up.  Then I dry them (yes, very important step).  So people braid garlics together by their brown leaves and hang them in a cool dry place for at least 2 weeks.  The garlic needs to be cured to allow some membranes to shrink and hold in all that yummy juice.  And here, I thought the braided garlics were just for show and vampires.  Silly me.

Here is an interesting fact.  The young garlic shoots can be harvested and made into a pesto!  What?  I don't think I've ever seen/heard of this.  Yeah, they will grow back up to 2 times.

One more thing, according to the Internet, home grown garlic is supposed to be far superior to store bought.  I am very skeptical.