What's wrong with my garlic chives?

[annachan]

I have been picking up flowering garlic chives at the local market the pass few weeks. The first bunch was great! They were nice and sweet. So I picked up more the next week and those were great. The following week, I picked up two bunches. The first bunch was great, like the previous. I cooked the second bunch a few days later and they were so spicy that I threw most of them away. I love spicy food but these were literally burning my throat. It was like acid!

The bunches all looked the same and they were all stored the same, for about the same number of days. I do like them a lot, when not crazy spicy. However, I've not been buying them because I just can't tell which are sweet and which are not. Are there ways to tell when you're buying them? Also, any idea of why my last bunch of chives were so spicy?

[Shalmanese]

Spicy like chili pepper spicy or garlic spicy?

[helenjp]

I have NEVER had hot or burning sensations from garlic chives (even stringy ones that didn't get watered often enough in the garden), and have to wonder whether leaves from some other plant got mixed in with the bunch.

Edited August 7, 2011 by helenjp (log)

[annachan]

It didn't feel lie chili spicy. When I was chewing it, I felt a burning sensation at the back of my mouth and throat. I imagine it's like drinking concentrated ginger juice.

The bunches of flowering garlic chives was very neat and there weren't any other vegetation mixed in, as far as could be seen by naked eyes. I thoroughly washed them before use.

It's quite a mystery as I've never encounter this before and I've been eating them since I was a kid!

[violetfox]

Has it been unusually hot and dry in your area? I imagine that might cause it.

[qrn]

since its winter there,they might be really old...

Bud

[maggiethecat]

since its winter there,they might be really old...

Bud

I think Bud may have something here. My plain ole chives are MUCH more chivey tasting in July than they were in April. Garlic chives? They are rampant predators in my garden and I'm trying to pull them out, root and branch. But I use them more earlier in the year; their flavor is fresher in springtime.

[annachan]

Don't think they are really old. The other bunches were all tender and sweet.

Anyone know how to spot the spicy ones?

[qrn]

since its winter there,they might be really old...

Bud

I think Bud may have something here. My plain ole chives are MUCH more chivey tasting in July than they were in April. Garlic chives? They are rampant predators in my garden and I'm trying to pull them out, root and branch. But I use them more earlier in the year; their flavor is fresher in springtime.

so they won't take over the garden,as mine used to do, pinch off the flowers, and they wont reseed themselves,,,,

Bud