Last summer we brought back some pink garlic from the French village of Lautrec, where we visited a memorable exhibition of tableaux created using pink garlic cloves as the raw material.

When we got home, we divided our garlic bulbs into single cloves and planted them in the back garden. Lo and behold, a year later, we have our own crop of pink garlic – somewhat sodden after all the rain, but aromatic and pleasingly reminiscent of the French countryside.

While our garlic is drying on a baking rack in the ‘sun’, we have been wondering what tableau we could make from the cloves. The Olympics would seem the obvious theme. Our own little opening ceremony, perhaps, with a chorus of pink garlic cloves, Julian Lloyd Webber playing his rare Garlicino cello atop a pedestal made from a green stem, and a moshpit full of crushed garlic. At the last minute I’ll supply tiny military uniforms for those garlic cloves providing security.