Garlic Plait (gouache style)

Garlic is a member of the onion family, thought to have come originally from Central Asia. Two kinds are grown: softneck garlic, which has soft stems that can be plaited and generally stores longest, and hardneck garlic, which sends up a stiff flowering stem and gives fewer, larger cloves. Its leaves are flat, unlike the hollow leaves of an onion. Elephant garlic, despite the name, is more closely related to the leek.

Plant individual cloves from October to December, pointed end up, about 15cm apart with their tips just below the surface. They need a cold spell to divide into a full bulb, which is why autumn planting works so well. Buy certified bulbs: supermarket garlic may carry disease or suit a warmer climate. Keep the bed weeded, and snap off hardneck flower stems in early summer. When the leaves start to yellow in summer, lift the bulbs, dry them in an airy place and plait the softnecks.

A finished plait of dried garlic hangs on a shed wall in this picture, next to a bunch of dried herbs. It's the end of a long process that began with single cloves the previous autumn, and the plait shows a crop that's been dried, tidied and put by for the kitchen.