TURBAN garlics are highly adaptable to different climates having been found from tropical Southeast Asia to arid Central Asia, to the Pyrenees and surrounding lowlands. Here in Southern Oregon, where they are some of the first to emerge and earliest to mature, the scapes seldom have time to coil before the plants are ready to harvest. As they mature early having warmer soil when they are in prime vegetative growth stage will result in stronger plants and higher yields. The plants have wide floppy leaves and bolt weakly, forming scapes with red tinged umbels. Due to the lack of fiber in the leaves, they are ideal for garlic greens pesto and well suited for early greens production. The stems are weak, thus pliable enough to braid. The outer bulb wrappers have beautiful dark purple striping revealing 10-12 plump salmon colored cloves per head, 45-60 cloves per pound. They are generally mild in heat with a nice earthy flavor, and will store around 7 months. Turbans are $11 per ¼ lb; $17 per ½ lb; $27 per lb.
Bangkok: when acquired at a market in the Thai capital, this was a small white bulb with pale cloves but after two seasons of adaptation became a large Turban with typical fat pink cloves inside violet wrapped bulbs. It is probable that this variety originated in China. Most of the production of garlic in Thailand is in the northern region surrounding Chiang Mai.
Basque Turban: from an enthusiastic Basque farmer in the small town of Corella in the autonomous province of Navarre (Nafarroa), Spain. It has a quick heat when eaten raw, fading into an earthy finish. In the Basque language garlic is “baratxuri”.
Tashkent Turban: this comes from a market in the capital of Uzbekistan. It has, perhaps, the darkest coloration of Turbans we’ve trialed and matures a day or so after the others.
