Smells Like Spring...Garlic

This post can also be read on bonappetit.com

There is a moment each spring when I find myself standing in the garden, just staring at the garlic. It's a moment I dread because it means it's thinning time. Thinning requires decision making, and when I'm forced to make decisions--in the garden and in life--I often fear that I'll make the wrong one. So I just stand there for a while, feeling the cool spring air on the back of my neck, and stare at the too-thick rows of garlic. I know I'll have to pull some of it out of the ground so the rest will have enough space to grow. It's a sacrifice for the common good. It's just hard to be the druidic executioner, so to speak, and choose who will live and who won't.

I plant garlic every fall. It sprouts an inch or two before winter, then sits, waiting for early spring, when it skyrockets, sending forth foot-tall shoots and leaves. In another month it will send up flower stalks, or scapes, which I'll remove so the bulbs will have all the energy they need to plump up into heady garlic. But before that happens, I'll have to pull out some of the weaklings, giving the hardier stalks space to grow.

This practice isn't limited to small family farms like mine. Garlic farmers with plots much larger than mine also thin their plants. And for those of you who aren't faced with the heart-wrenching task of deciding which stalks to pull, that's good news. You can often find spring garlic at farmers' markets, and as you might imagine, it's pretty good stuff.

Spring garlic has the sharp flavor of aged garlic (the garlic you buy in the store has been hung and aged for some time, extending its shelf life and producing that papery skin on the outside), but it lacks the muskiness and bite that generally come with garlic that's not right out of the ground. Its cologne fills your head. And remembering that aroma makes the need to pull some of the stalks out easier for me. Much easier, in fact, because roast chicken with spring garlic and butter under the skin is a real treat that's around for only a couple of weeks each year.

Here's a recipe for that spring garlic-heavy roast chicken. I'd say it's worth sacrificing the lives of several of these little lilies.

Photos by Ian Knauer

Spring Garlic Roast Chicken
Serves 4

1 3 1/2-lb. whole chicken
2 stalks spring garlic
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 lemon, halved
1 3/4 tsp. kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Position a rack in middle of oven and preheat to 450 degrees F.

Rinse the chicken and pat it dry. Beginning at the large cavity and being careful not to tear the skin, gently run your fingers between the skin and the meat to loosen the skin.

Remove any tough leaves from garlic, then finely chop the pale-green and white parts. Stir together garlic with butter, 1 tsp. salt, and 3/4 tsp. pepper.

Push garlic butter under chicken skin, including around the thighs and drumsticks; massage skin from the outside to spread butter evenly.

Season chicken inside and out with 3/4 tsp. each salt and pepper. Place lemon halves in the cavity and loosely tie the legs together with kitchen twine. Place chicken in a roasting pan on its side (one wing up; you may need to lean the chicken against the side of the pan) and roast 15 minutes. Turn chicken over to the other side and roast 15 minutes more. Turn the chicken onto its back and continue to roast until skin is golden and has begun to pull away from the base of the drumsticks. This will take about another 20-25 minutes. Transfer chicken to a cutting board and let rest 15 minutes before carving.