Open for Garlic Orders - get ready to plant something spicy this Fall!

 We have lots of beautiful porcelain garlic strains for sale, gorgeous Marbled Purple Stripes, and many other kinds as well!  The Catalogue is here, and on the Catalogue page. The catalogue page also contains a list that is updated as strains of garlic sell out. The maximum limits on the Catalogue page have been adjusted as of Sept 25th, to better reflect our remaining inventory.  A few strains have been sold out, but there is still lots to choose from, and a great selection of bulbils.

If you are in the area and wish to pick up an order, be advised it is a gravel road, and be sure to use your map! Google maps may send you down our sideroad. This pin on google maps shows where our laneway actually is, and it will not ask you to walk across a potentially muddy field - though I know some of you probably would do it just to get at our garlic!

August Update

 

Hey Garlic Growers, 

Ever wonder what my garlic looks like before it's trimmed and packaged into your orders?

Here is a quick, informal video tour of the Granary (my garlic curing and storage area):
96 strains of garlic in one room. (bitchute.com)

In preparation for launching the catalogue on August 20th, here are a few details for this year:

Price is $20.00/ pound for seed garlic ( $10.00/ half pound, and $4.25/ bulb)

Eating garlic available for $12.00/ pound.

Bulbils are $5.00/ pkt of 2 umbels.

The Stratford Garlic Festival is back - scaring the vampires out of the City of Stratford again - (or so we can hope, they've run rampant in town for two years now).
Our farm will not have a booth this year, and are looking forward to experiencing it from a different perspective, as shoppers only. 

It will be possible to pick up pre-orders at the Farm, on Sept 10 and 11th, if you are in the area, during one of the garlic festival days: Home - Stratford Kiwanis Garlic Festival (stratfordgarlicfestival.com) 
When The Kiwanis club posts the schedule for the Festival, we will be able to set our hours for pick up times on those days.

My plan for the following year is to grow slightly larger amounts of the popular and easy-to-grow Porcelains and Marbled Purple Stripes, and down size most everything else to a seed library quantity.
I may have bulbils available from the "seed library", so that I can continue to share the genetic diversity of my garlic collection, but for 2023, I will not have the same set up for the catalogue, it will be much simpler. 

Garlicky Regards, Julie

The Harvest of 2022

It is great to see the sun set on a another garlic crop - because it is really just another chapter opening - and with all the drought we've been having, we could certainly use a change. 

It is also nice to see what the results are of a nine month project. The results are in, and other than a couple of nobbly, oddly-shapen bulbs that couldn't push through the rock-like clay, the size and quality is surprisingly good. I'd say it's about average to all my other years, and with all the dry air, it's curing nicely.

Some of you may be wondering about this year's catalogue. I plan to have it out on August 20th.

 I've just started trimming the Artichokes and Rocamboles, and getting a feel for quantities and how things will go. I am also plotting out the next planting of garlic, and how much seed to save, and making some changes so that I can continue to grow garlic in a way that works for me and my family. Mainly, I'm concentrating on the best porcelains and marbled purple stripes for a year (or longer) while I downsize the rest to a "seed library" quantity, just large enough to keep these varieties going, while offering bulbils to get other people started, if they are interested.  I may expand again in the future, we are just working through some transitions on the farm.

My sister Rachel, cleaning off the bulbs expertly, and laying them in piles to be picked up by me, after I'm done taking pictures.

I hand dug a fair bit of garlic this year, as I was worried about the undercutter rising out of the hard, chalky-textured soil and smashing a bunch of bulbs in half. You can really tell where the drainage tile, and the nice ground is on a dry year. Normally it's a fairly solitary job, but one of our cats chose to keep me company for quite a while.

The harvested garlic at the start of filling the granary, where we have climate control with two dehumidifiers/air conditioners.

 

A Synopsis of Spring

Seeing as my last post was "Winter" I've got a bit of catching up to do. Hopefully you find it attractive to look at ice, in the middle of summer...I think some people do, though I've never met them.

 It's only been the first couple of days into Summer, actually, but those are always the hottest days, aren't they, until our bodies adjust?

So, these pictures are from Feb 23, 2022, showing how much ice was coating at least half of the garlic plot. After the 5 inch rain last fall, and then this, I figured the crop would be about as present as Trudeau was at the Ottawa Truckers celebration - though much more welcome to see if it surprised me with an appearance!

I was poking holes, where I could get through the ice, so that it could breathe (that's the real killer, in my understanding - lack of air). The ice was so thick and solid to the bottom, in some places, that the shovel handle I was using barely made a dint. 

But then, magically, garlic proved once again to be a survivor! Just look at it below:

After the ice and snow went away, the resilient little sprouts were still there, coming out of hibernation with a determination to grow! By April 6, 2022 this is how the plot looked. 

Spring planting the Creoles and Silver Skins was a bit challenging...I had to be patient first, then pushy just to get it done. 

  Seeing as I had no prepared ridge of earth to work into, this is the simple rig I macgyvered using a wheelhoe with a tape measure (attached by bungie cord), to measure and mark a reasonably straight row beside the other garlic rows. I only got Mother of Pearl and Aglio Rosso planted this day (April 8th) the rest went in the week after, when it was slightly less wet, and I didn't have drizzle driving under the bottom of my coat, while I crouched down, dibbing the cloves into the sticky soil. (This was not like last year, of course, but you can't get lucky every time.)

"I'm a little garlic in Golden Acres clay-loam. 

Here is the rain and here is the sun. 

My little cloves, from around the globe, have found a home.

I am always oh-so happy while my growing's done. 

And when you pull me out, I will shout - 'put me in your favourite stew!'"

May 23, 2022 Not a plant missing, on these rows. The great survivor strikes again! And the nice thick stalks mean we should have a good harvest.