August 24, 2024

 Thanks everyone, for checking out my list on the Catalogue page. I've nearly sold out in four days, which was about what I was expecting. I do have a few things left, and especially bulbils, because I had a feeling it would be a tough year, and I saved some scapes of nearly everything, just in case. After hail knocked a bunch of them off in June, it just seemed prudent.

So, if you are still looking to order, be prepared to compromise on the selection, or you can ask me to make up a variety pack based on what I have left, for as many kinds and amounts as you choose (I'll let you know if I have it).

It has been wonderful connecting with all of you this season, when you come out the farm and share your wisdom and gardening stories, that is my encouragement for the year.

All the best, Julie

Trimming and sorting progress report 2024

 Hello Everyone, 

I thought I'd share some uplifting pictures of what the bulbs are looking like this year. There is more staining to the wrappers, and a lot have been demoted to seconds because the skins are split, but I can sort out some really nice bulbs, and there are virtually no small bulbs, especially in the porcelain group. 

I am very grateful that we were able to hand dig them as quickly as possible once the rain receded, otherwise I'm quite sure I would have a lot less to offer you this year. 

I am working on a list as I trim more of the different kinds. This week I will work on Marbled Purple Stripes. They took it hardest, having all the rain, so that'll be a toss up as to what will be available for purchase. I did save lots of bulbils this year, so hopefully that will fill out your desires for new strains, and keep the diversity alive and flowing across the landscape, growing in those beautiful home and market gardens.  All the best - Julie

There were a few that got harvested before the rain - the early varieties like Turbans and Asiatics.

This Garlic Seed Library Needed an Ark

 Well, 2024 harvest has been fun! First we had some hurricane leftovers (nothing like what the southern United States dealt with of course, but a good 4 inches of rain none the less. I thought, okay, its early enough, we have time to let things dry out before I need to pull the garlic out. Well...

Yeah, we got more rain after that.

I was feeling a bit desperate on July 15th and went out with a wheelbarrow and a shovel. 

I was thinking, well, I can salvage some varieties! 

I'm very grateful that after that, it quit raining for about a week. I moved on it immediately, and started hand digging in the mud, then in the sticky clay, all the way into the reasonably dry top soil/still a little sticky underneath. Near the grand finally of our harvest window, it would have been possible to get the tractor out there, but it was hardly worth the set up. Besides, my sister and I are well conditioned to hand digging garlic - we do some of it every year, and it is how we got started, before we rented, and then purchased a black plastic lifter, that serves as our undercutter for the garlic.

On the last major day of harvest, July 21st, we did Red Russian and Duganskij MPS. They did not initially look ready, but I was suspicious of the top leaves turning uniformly yellowish, and sure enough, many of the bulbs were actually rotting in the ground. We've had to sort a lot of them out for emergency processing in our food dehydrator. 

The amazing thing is that it still looks like I have a something of a crop - there is just a lot more sorting and second grade bulbs. Once we did the work of getting them into the barn, it seemed possible to continue. The Catalogue will be much reduced this year, and the verdict is undecided about how much, of what kinds, I will grow next year. I need to determine what seed to save. This week I will start trimming, and will get a better idea of what I've got to work with.

Another feature is that with the adequate rainfall earlier in the summer, the some Porcelain bulbs are truly enormous! So, there is always something positive to focus on! I'll try to get some pictures while I trim and sort :-)

All the best with all of your own garlic adventures! Julie

Overlapping Our Harvest - When size doesn't matter so much!

 Hello There, Garlic Growers!

I know we are all sizing up the garlic plants at this time of year, and some of you may have even dug a few bulbs up already. Maybe some leaves are drying down early, which can be a fungal issue, with all this rain we've been getting. It's quite early for most garlic to be dug yet, but sometimes you have to save it before the leaves are all brown and the wrappers are gone. 

Typically for me the main crop is harvested on or after July 20th, but I adjust the harvest timing each year to match the crop - as much as two weeks early sometimes, but usually not a lot later. Depending on the seasons conditions, I have to judge by the leaves being about 50% dried down.. (I may have a slightly later harvest than most other growers, as I play around with leaving the scapes on until a bit later, and that seems to delay the drying down a little bit.)

My first harvested bulbs this year, came out of the ground June 30th - just so I could say it wasn't July! Three Turban strains were ready to go (they don't need to be as dried down as most other garlic, and have fewer leaves, so two dried leaves is fine, they also fall over like softnecks, which is an indication they are ready.) On the shelf above are Basque, Tuscan and Xian.

Last year I discovered that Turbans make great black garlic. But, they are a bit finickity and not super winter hardy, and not very consistent or large bulbed. So, do I expect them to leap into a big niche for the early market, and as the first black garlic to hit the shelf at the start of the garlic season? - not really. But the fact that I can harvest them now and they dry down quickly; the fact that I've been growing them for at least twelve years, says to me that bulb size isn't always the most important factor to consider when selecting which varieties to grow.

On the other end of the spectrum from Turbans, are Creoles. Creoles also make great black garlic, but what's even better is that you don't have to use them for months and months. If you are using up culinary garlic to keep it from spoiling (you'll typically get this problem if you grow a lot of garlic, and some of it is not saleable), Creoles are last on the list of urgency. They basically only sprout if you cold treat them. I still have some from last year's crop. I just had to take this picture of the 2023 Creole cloves sliced in half, on July 1st, 2024. There were a few that spoiled, but some firm bulbs lasted good.

After I had captured the image, I popped a slice of the creole clove in my mouth and crushed it a bit with my back molars for a nice slow release raw garlic experience, as I do sometimes when I'm planting in the fall and find a nicked seed clove I don't want to put in the ground. Holding it there for a few seconds I tried to distract myself from the bite, but I had to spit it out, it was so sharp!!! Flavour changes over time. With 10+ months of storage under its belt, the Barcelona Red Spanish Creole was less juicy, so, it was very concentrated!

But again, the bulbs are small! And to get any real consistency in size, I have to spring plant Creoles.

 But is size the only thing that matters? 

Not when you can overlap your crops. We grow a lot of "winter vegetables" like carrots and beets, and with the right varieties and storage techniques, you can be eating the old crop after the next one is harvestable and ready in the new season. It's really cool, and local, and self reliant. With a bit of luck and planning, and the right varieties, the same can happen with garlic.

When Scapes Curl

 Hey, what an early year! The garlic scapes have emerged already and it won't be long before we will start cutting them off. 

 Ideally for eating this is when they make a nice loop, or double loop depending on variety, but before they get tough and start to straighten out. If I'm not planning of eating them, I always like to cut when they are just starting to straighten - a little fiber development in the stalk is a good thing, I think.

The first picture (below) is of a porcelain scape in that perfect pretzel shape - ready to be eaten (yes, it has white stripes on it, and despite the fact that I usually use Crystal White scapes in floral arrangements, it is still edible). On the right is a porcelain scape just starting to straighten, in what I call the "shepherd's hook" stage. That can be a difference of 2 - 3 days, so if you are selling to the market, be sure to check the scape development often.

Garlic scapes are good food if you know how to use them in cooking. I personally always preferred the main event - the deliciousness from the bulbs - those tasty, mature, juicy and pungent cloves! But what is family for if not to stretch your mind a little. When my sister was home last June, she brought a recipe for beer batter coating and deep fried some garlic scape rings in that. That changed my mind about scapes. They are a fun summer treat!

You just cut the tough pointy tip off and wrap the coils of scape around them selves to secure each one into a ring shape that will hold together through the frying process. You don't want them to be wet - the batter doesn't stick well to water droplets.

Here's the recipe for the batter, if you want to try it:

"Mushroom Will's Beer Batter"

1 cup flour

1 tsp garlic powder (yep, doubling up on the garlic super flavour!!)

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 1/4 tsp salt

paprika to taste

1 beaten egg

1 cup to 1 1/2 cup beer (can substitute with another appropriate liquid, or water)

For a lighter batter, replace 1/3 cup flour with corn starch. For Gluten Free, use Chickpea flour.

My sister Sheri is a big proponent of cast iron pans, as you can see in the picture, and they do work well for this when the pan is well seasoned...we didn't have to use a lot of fat to fry the scapes, just enough to slightly float them. We always use pork lard to deep fry. Not only is the flavour better, but the large size of the fat molecules allows for a nice crispy texture without the batter absorbing too much grease. (this can also be helped by getting the temperature right. Right around 365 F (185 C), but always do a test with the first batch and check that they are getting done nicely. The scape should be slightly tender and the coating golden brown. Pork lard is also very stable at high temperatures and degrades less than vegetable oil. From my understanding, this degradation in deep fryer vegetable oil is what makes the stickiness in your cholesterol that causes problems and blockages in our arteries sometimes.

 P.S. If you want to help your cholesterol situation...I'm told that eating garlic regulates it admirably ;-)

The Earliest I've ever Planted Spring Garlic

Hey there Garlic Growers! I was out on the field yesterday! 

Amazing, I've never planted anything on March 8th before...not in the ground. The sooner my Creoles and Silver Skins get started after the harsh winter has ceased the better (not that this winter was very harsh) so I'm very excited to see how they yield, with the longest growing window I can give them. Other Years I've been able to pop them in at March 25th or April 13th. 

It's not a very glamorous project for pictures, I literally just put a box of Creole and Silver Skin bulbs in paper bags in my house for most of the winter, move them to our cold storage at zero degrees in early February, and this is what they look like when I pull them out and prepare to plant them.

I love doing these kinds of tasks completely by hand - it makes it possible, because I'm only about 150 lbs, with large farmer shoes to spread the weight - my soil compaction impact is pretty marginal on this tender spring soil. 

Last year I made a plan, measured out how much space I would need, hilled up the rows, and placed stakes marking each variety I would plant. I planned where each would go so that Silver Skin would be next to Creole types in the row, for no mix ups - it was so easy to go out there, on the impulse of good weather, and just push the cloves in with a garden digger. No fussing over maps, or running out of space!

By the way, if you are curious, Last fall on November 20th, the soil was about the same texture and dryness. I used a wheel hoe to scuffle the penny cress and other late weeds that were growing - again hand work, so low compaction on borderline wet soil...can you tell that I like farm work workouts! It really helps to get a head start on the weeds, before the spring season has even begun. I may plant early, but I weed late. If possible. Weather permitting, as always!

And to show how little the garlic was up last fall, here's a picture from November 11th. 

The garlic is just emerging now, on March 8th, and I'm pleased to see that almost every clove is there.