Solo garlic facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Solo garlic |
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Single clove garlic
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| Species | Allium sativum |
| Cultivar | Any |
| Origin | Yunnan |
Solo garlic, also called single clove garlic or pearl garlic, is a special kind of garlic. Unlike regular garlic, which has many cloves, solo garlic has only one! It's usually about 2.5 to 5 centimeters wide.
This unique garlic tastes like regular garlic but is a bit milder and has a light, pleasant smell. It looks a bit like a small onion, with white skin that often has purple stripes. One great thing about solo garlic is how easy it is to peel compared to regular garlic.
People have been growing single clove garlic near the Himalayas for about 7,000 years. It's not a specific type of garlic plant. Instead, it grows this way because of how it's planted and the environment. Other garlic types, like Allium nigrum and Allium ampeloprasum, can also grow as single cloves.
How Solo Garlic Grows
You can get small solo garlic bulbs by planting tiny parts called bulbils from any garlic plant. However, most solo garlic for sale comes from places where the environment naturally helps garlic grow as a single bulb.
In these areas, the climate and careful farming methods cause a large part of the garlic crop to grow as one bulb instead of splitting into many cloves.
Where Solo Garlic is Grown
China
Many people believe solo garlic first came from Yunnan, a mountainous area in China. In China, it's known as "only-child garlic."
India
In India, solo garlic has different names like ek kali ka lehsun in Hindi. You can find it mostly in central India. The main areas that grow it are Madhya Pradesh and parts of Rajasthan.
Farmers plant solo garlic in November and December, after the Diwali festival. They harvest it in February and March. Indian solo garlic is smaller than Chinese solo garlic, usually about 1 to 2 centimeters. It's also more cylinder-shaped. Its skin is mostly white, sometimes with light purple lines.
Peru
Sometimes, you can find a type of solo garlic in markets in central Peru. People there call it ajo trompo, which means "top garlic." This is because its shape looks like a spinning toy top. Its skin is pure white.
The flavor is mild and slightly perfumed, just like other solo garlic. No one knows for sure where it came from in Peru, but it was probably brought there by Chinese immigrants a long time ago.
See also
In Spanish: Ajo macho para niños
