Plant · P-662

Rocambole

Allium sativum

Rocambole is the hardneck strain of garlic, easy to spot by the stiff flower stalk that curls as it grows and carries a head of small, strongly flavoured bulbils. One plant gives four separate foods - the bulb, the bulbils, the mild leaves and flowers, and the curled flower stalk itself, cut young as a garlicky vegetable that softneck garlic never produces. It needs a real winter chill followed by lengthening spring days before the bulb will split into cloves, and it stores far worse than softneck garlic, so it suits a kitchen that uses it up within months rather than one that wants a year's supply on the shelf.