Music

Music is a porcelain-type hardneck garlic with white skin lightly blushed with pink to purple, sometimes taking on mauve or brown tones. Its bulbs are large yet hold only four to seven cloves, and each clove grows extra large — often over two inches — while still peeling easily. The flavor is medium-hot and aromatic. Strong, robust plants make the bulbs stand out in the garden.

Raw, Music carries a bold, musky heat often described as true gourmet garlic flavor; cooked, that intensity mellows into a sweeter, smoother taste, and roasting brings out an even gentler sweetness. This shift makes it a versatile choice for soups, sauces, marinades, dips, stir-fries, and rubs. Its extra-large cloves are quick to peel and process, an advantage when roasting whole bulbs. In early summer the plant also sends up curly scapes that offer a milder garlic flavor for cooking or can be used as a decorative cut flower.

In trials at Michigan State University, Music outyielded all other garlic varieties tested, producing over 13,500 pounds per acre. Its tightly wrapped bulbs also store unusually well for a porcelain type, keeping for nine months to a year. The plants are notably cold-hardy, sending down long roots that overwinter well and resist frost heaving, and the variety adapts to a wide range of growing conditions across USDA zones 3 through 8. Considered one of the hardiest garlics, with some resistance to disease, it has become a favorite on market farms across the northern US and Canada.

Music takes its name from Al Music, a Canadian tobacco grower who turned to growing garlic. He is credited with bringing this variety back to Canada from his native Italy in the 1980s, introducing it into North American cultivation.