So Many Earth Worms at Harvest Time!

I love earth worms, sometimes it is so dry at harvest that they bury themselves deep and I see very few of them when I'm digging up the garlic, so the silver lining of a wet year is the gratitude I feel for those little immigrants who nurture my plants from the roots up. Years ago my sister gave me a book on earthworms (The Earth Moved: on the remarkable achievements of earthworms, by Amy Stewart)  and I learned that some types of worms live exclusively around the roots of plants, others, like red wrigglers thrive only on decomposing material, such as compost piles. The earthworms we know in gardening and farming are mostly European by decent, and compliment agriculture, by being vigorous and active - they decompose things too fast for the slow, gentle undergrowth of old forests, but we like them just fine in our fields.

So, harvest went well, in between the rains, and the garlic is gradually getting dry enough to trim.

Crop Update, July 21, 2023

Porcelains. July 19, 2023

What a fantastic year of upset expectations! For a few weeks in early summer I thought we were in for a repeat of last years drought, but the last couple of weeks have seen an exceptional turn around. With chances of rain forecasted for nearly every day, it's hard to plan anything ahead, but as you can see, the garlic is late to dry down, so there's still a chance that harvest weather will be nice after all! 

I expect I'll be releasing the Catalogue for this years crop on Monday, August 21st, so that we have a chance to get inventory trimmed and weighed.

We received several inches of rain fall in the last month, thankfully spread out enough that the puddles did not become semi-permanent lakes. Looks like the garlic stood it well, though I was going spare for a while, not being able to get out to the field to really look at it, or prepare mentally and physically for harvest. July 19th was the first time I've been able to walk out there freely, on dry ground, for about two weeks.

 This is what the plot looked like June 17th. I'm also showing off my early weed control - antique wheel hoes are great, if you get the weeds small. The problem is, the weeds don't stay small when it's too wet to keep at them! I find the old tools are so much more ergonomic than most of the modern ones, and actually bite into the ground, so you don't have to push down as hard in tight soil. 

You can see a few runs where water washed across the top on the soil...thankfully I chose a good spot in the field, so nothing was under water or seriously impacted. I'm amazed how quickly the top of the soil dried off in just three rainless days...you can kinda see in this picture the thunderstorm that was coming in from the west (left side of the sky) as I rushed around and quickly snapped a document of what the garlic looked like at this stage, we got another 9 mm from that one, so not too much.

I've harvested Turbans, Asiatics and some Rocamboles so far.  Looking forward to breaking out the undercutter next week, and pulling in some big ole Porcelains and Marbled Purple Stripes! A week ago, I was joking that we were going to carve tiny paddles for them and they could just row themselves into the barn, but sunshine has an amazing restorative power on the psychie!

All the best with your respective garlic harvests!  - Julie
 

Black Garlic

 

I found the best way to preserve those early sprouting Turban garlics that you can never use up in time!

Black Garlic!

There is some controversy over black garlic, both over its origin and whether or not it is a fermented product, but there is no controversy in my soul when it comes to eating it!

Any garlic can be made into black garlic, though I've done some experimenting with different varieties, and the type of garlic you start out with definitely affects the flavour and texture of the final product. The machine used to make black garlic, and mainstream the process, was invented in Korea a couple decades ago, so many websites will claim that the process is relatively new, and that it originated in Korea. At the Guelph Organic Conference, this past January, I had the pleasure of speaking with an Asian woman who was selling black garlic, and she assured me that black garlic has been around a lot longer than the internet. It is a traditional ingredient in Asian culture, going so far back, she's not sure which country actually discovered it: China, Thailand or Korea. 

All three countries have been making and eating black garlic for as long as anyone can remember, but they used a very different process than the hasty, convenient method of putting it in the machine pictured above. Traditional black garlic was made in clay crocks, buried in the ground along with coals from a fire that was stoked and fed for at least 30 - 40 days...gentleman, start your campfires...can you imagine tending to such a task, all the while being uncertain of the outcome of those precious garlic bulbs, hidden away and protected by the clay pot? 

With great risk comes great reward! And, perhaps, there is no shortcut to effort. I wonder quite often if the commercial product really has the similar health benefits as the traditional black garlic. It's hard to say which one has been studied the most, and unless one can find the original paper publishing the results of the nutritional analysis, and said paper mentioned how the black garlic was made, or who it was purchased from, how can we really know what the information means? Quite often numbers just don't tell the whole story. They say black garlic has twice the antioxidants, and twice the vitamin C as fresh garlic. It also contains healthy tannins and has the added benefit of not giving you garlic breath. That sounds great, and I'll happily eat it up...especially with cream cheese on bread! But, also, another question to ask is what fresh garlic are we comparing it to, to say it has twice the benefit? Supermarket bulbs or locally grown organic garlic? 

In the end, it's pure garlic that goes in, and nothing else, so I figure black garlic is at least as healthy as the garlic you start with. I'm not sure if a machine you plug in for nine days has the same result or intention as a fire you stoke for 40 days, but I bought one such machine, and I feel the benefits.

Like I said in my first sentence, it's a great way to make garlic keep forever! Store black garlic in an airtight container, and it'll even keep at room temperature for over two years (a fact which leans toward the idea that it really is fermented, to my mind). 

I didn't start making it right away, so I can't say what fresh dug bulbs do in such a machine (there was a setting for venting/drying excessively wet garlic, but I didn't use it). I first got the black garlic maker in November, so I immediately did several batches of Turban garlic. It was so great, I discovered that Turbans make really lovely black garlic that is smooth and creamy. I can fit about 3.75 pounds fresh garlic in the wire basket that goes in the machine, so I tucked some different bulbs in with the Turbans to find out which varieties made the best black garlic (I made a map of the basket, lol, so I could still find them when they came out charred and transformed). 2.5 pounds of black garlic comes out of the machine, every nine days. Needless to say, I kept that machine going with new batches of bulbs for quite a few months.

I think October, November and December are probably the best months to make black garlic, with an extended period for varieties that keep really well and retain their moisture content, in the clove. As the cloves experience moisture loss, or prepare for sprouting, the texture gets more dry, they can get a charred taste if processed too long, and the flavour is compromised when they sprout.

My favourites for black garlic are Rocambole, Turban and Creole. All three are really flavourful, smooth and creamy. Porcelain holds up in any circumstance it seems, and makes for a solid product, with slightly more punch flavour-wise, and more structure, texturally. Artichoke Softnecks surprised me, because they were wholesomely flavourful once made into black garlic, with good texture to boot. Silver Skins are great and can be done after you are finished with most of the other garlic. Purple Stripes and Marbled Purple Stripes confirmed what we have been telling Garlic Festival goers for years: They retain their spunk, no matter what is done to them. Personally, I didn't like them as black garlic so much. It's not that they were hot (no black garlic is) they simply didn't have the richness and fullness you'd expect, and the texture was a little more grainy.

I just realized while writing this that I didn't do any Asiatic bulbs into black garlic, which surely is a sin, as it practically screams "Asian food" right in the name...Ah, well, project for next year!

We have a good stash of black garlic, and if any of you are wondering, you can certainly try some when you come out to the farm.

I'll end my post with a little game of eye spy in the picture below: can you spy our cloves of black garlic on the gorgeous, activated charcoal bread from Vann's Fine Bakery, of Stratford?

Planting

Sept 18, 2022

Well, I'm back tracking a bit, but now that this farmer's hibernation has been interrupted, I find I have lots to say, so I'd best start in chronological order.

The garlic planted for 2023, is on a 0.4 acre plot, only slightly smaller than last year's. The difference is, I put in full rows, or larger plantings of the most popular and best growing Porcelains and Marbled Purple Stripes, and reduced many of the others to a handful of cloves or just one pound of seed. I am trying to make it simpler, though I've been told that no matter how I try, I usually complicate things with great enthusiasm, so likely you will find me saving bulbils and selling all the specialty ones by the bulb as much as I can, for the sake of diversity. I have updated the 2022 Catalogue page to include a list of what I have in the ground, and what is planned for spring planting.

Sept 17, 2022

You can see how dry and dusty it still was in September. I planted earlier than I needed to, but, goodness, it didn't really seem to matter - the cloves just sat there until a big enough rain finally saturated the loose ground all the way through. It was a most unusual summer here. I once tried to dig a deep hole in the field, in July, but after scraping the top 6 inches of loose soil off, a pick axe would have been a more appropriate tool than a shovel - and - prepare for a work out while swinging that pick axe, while making tedious progress! The clay subsoil was that dry.

Sept 30, 2022

Nov 11, 2022

It was so dry, we were able to scuffle the garlic (and tine weed the winter wheat) in November.

Nov 11, 2022

 Some of the garlic was up by then, so we could kinda see where the rows of garlic exactly were. For the last couple years we have been putting orange or yellow stakes in every 50 ft before we close the furrow, to mark the rows, in case we get the chance to go over it before the garlic is up and that's been quite helpful, because our hiller can get off to the side a bit otherwise.

Another trick I've been doing is to plant the Turbans later than my other garlic. Turbans sprout so fast and are so frost tender, I'm trying to give then a break (since I can hardly save then for spring planting and be assured of the keeping quality). I got anxious and planted them on October 11, 2022... Who was to know that the weather would stay so nice. In my experience it usually goes in 2 month phases, based on where the jet stream is tracking (if it's making a loop above us we get hot and dry, or if it's pulling the cold air down, cool and wet). You never know when it's going to switch (or if it will).

Anyway, that's my very, very belated update on what planting was like last fall. I intended to make a video, but the wind was so strong out in the field it was beyond my abilities to make a functional presentation out of the raw video sequences. 

I'll soon be getting my Silver Skins and Creoles into the cold storage (with the carrots and beets), so that they can get sufficient chilling hours to bulb properly. If anyone needs carrots, by the way, we have them at the farm! And we sell them in small batches to Pfennings Organic and More, the health food store in St. Agatha.

Carrots don't get any sweeter, than when you dig them in the snow! Sugars develop in the cells when root crops are confronted by freezing temperatures. Some of the sugar even develops months later, in storage, for varieties like the Chantenay types that are good for our rich clay...so, actually, technically, carrots do get sweeter than in the December snow and are best right about now!

Not all of them look like this however! 

Only a few were dancing so gracefully as this one in their search for minerals in the soil.

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. 

 

Winter 2021

Warm Winter Greetings and Hopeful wishes for the coming year! Pictured above is the sunrise on our first snowfall of the season (Nov 3, 2021). Here is what our garlic  looked like on that day:

As we move into the longer days of winter, we can celebrate that we just passed the 21st day of the 12th month of the year 2021, in the 21st century! I am sure that has a deep numerical meaning! Solstice is a time to be introspective, find rest, and re-fuel the internal flame so that you are ready to bring the light back into your world. I like to think that the garlic is doing the same.

The two types of energy, Cationic and Anionic, balance throughout the year on a kind of pendulum: the flowering Cationic energy swings into full bloom at the summer solstice, leading most daylight sensitive plants to initiate or express their prolific flowering capacity, such as when garlic puts forth its garlic scapes, with flowers and bulbils.

 The other side of the year, on winter solstice, is the highest expression of Anionic growth energy. We may think this is a little odd, because everything appears to be dormant, or harvested and is done with growing. True enough for most annuals except garlic. But garlic of course is busy growing roots, even at subzero temperatures. The root growth does slow down in the midst of winter, which is why I like to plant early enough to take advantage of fall root growth. But for most plants we only notice the growth energy surge at each end of the growing season. It is strongly felt in the spring, when the lettuce and leafy greens flourish; then the leafy plants become harder to grow as the Anionic energy dissipates with rising temperatures. High Summer is the time for flowers! Growth energy returns in the fall, measured by increased hay crop yields and more frequent lawn cuttings, as the wet and cool environment brings it back. 

I like to think that we all grow a little bit in the winter, and like the tight growth ring of a northern tree, that slow going in the depths of the cold, is the hard wood that sustains us through the trying and difficult times of our lives.  

I also like to eat lots of garlic at this time of year! It is a powerful antioxidant, as anyone knows if they've taken it raw on an empty stomach! (Not advised.) Even Selenium supplementation should be taken on a full stomach in case it upsets the gut. 

 Selenomethionine and Selenocystine are the two amino acids that are safe sources of Selenium, and to the extent that selenium can be found in the soil; garlic, onions and some grains, are able to gather and concentrate these great antioxidant substances. This year they may be especially important, particularity for men, who have a higher need of selenium. 200 micro grams (mcg) of selenomethionine per day, is generally recommended for healthy adults. The element itself is an essential component of glutathione peridoxase, an enzyme that cleans up oxidative substances that can be damaging to our tissues when we are exposed to the chemicals of our environment, especially at a time when those beautiful green leaves we have grown accustomed to seeing are no longer around to help us filter the air we breathe.

A great feeling of curiosity comes over me when I contemplate the coming spring...I try to keep this feeling optimistic. I think that as long as there is life there is hope, and that the natural world expresses this best, because it does so without hubris, or even expectations. The garlic that I planted on Sept 20, has been partially flooded twice in the fall, I'm the one who is worried about it, lol...but it looks good - all up out of the ground at nearly 100 percent! So I have my fingers crossed for a good spring. Ordering the garden seeds for our vegetables and flowers, always seems to heighten that expectation, as we dream about what is possible for the coming season.

 I am currently storing a good selection of garlic bulbils, so I can relax knowing that there is at least a back up plan, to preserve the diversity of my crop, if needed.

 I am planning to offer spring shipping on what garlic bulbils remain, and will send out a list of what's available in February or early March.

I hope that everyone has a lovely Solstice, Christmas, and New Year. 

Julie Fleischauer

Thank you for a good Garlic Season

 Hi, Just wanted to let everyone know that other than bulbils, many garlic strains have been sold out, and saleable seed stock of what is remaining is quite limited.

If you have preordered, you can still pick up your garlic, just let us know when you are coming. 

Thanks, Julie

Garlic 2021

 We are still taking garlic orders for 2021. Stock is fairly limited at this point, so it is a good idea to have substitutions in mind. Your can check out the 2021 Garlic Catalogue page for more details.

 We are open 9 am - 6 pm Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week. Tuesday we are closed. You can make an appointment to come at any other time during the fall season. We also run a small vegetable market Nov - March, that is likewise by appointment.

Julie's cell: 519-588-5290, email goldenacresfarm@hotmail.com

Garlic orders are around the back of the barn. (The picture above shows the side of the barn and the white roller door, where the other vegetables are- squash, onions, beets, potatoes, etc. And the picture below shows the side and back of the barn.)

Around the back of the barn, and inside the large sliding doors is our renovated Granary, where the garlic is cured, cleaned, and sold.

2021 Garlic Season

We still have some Silver Skin garlic to harvest, but thanks to our family team effort, almost all of it is in the barn drying, some is trimmed, and the bulbs look pretty nice! There is more purple colouring on some of the Porcelains than is usual, though I have seen it before...maybe the dry heat of spring brought it on.

 If you want to be added to our mailing list, please send an email to goldenacresfarm@hotmail.com. 

Orders can be picked up at the farm, as usual. (2579 Line 47, RR1 Gads Hill, Ontario.) First two weeks of September or by appointment.  We can accommodate contactless pick up, if you request it. 

You will be able to call or text your order to 519-588-5290 (Julie's Cell) or email to goldenacresfarm@hotmail.com. On or after August 20th, please. I usually release the Catalogue on August 15th, but as that lands on a Sunday, I've decided to give myself a bit more time to get inventory prepared and garlic trimmed. Because we cure the garlic the old way, leaving the stalks on, it takes longer for it to dry.

Remember, we do not process credit cards. Email transfer is set up for automatic deposit this year, when you send it to julie.goldenacres@gmail.com. Also, cheques, money orders or cash are good methods of payment. 

I want to take a moment to be grateful for all the wonderful people that I have met over the years through doing garlic. The Stratford Garlic Festival was a great place to meet every year, and I'll always be thankful of the friendly Kiwanis volunteers who made our twelve years there not only possible, they also just had your back, come rain, storm or technical failure. Those years were special!

  

My sister Rachel, with our friend Dennis, who makes beautiful wooden boxes to raise awareness of the Stratford Perth County Community Foundation, a charitable foundation that provides support for our local community. 

Thanks Dennis, those boxes are a good way to showcase our onions! (Also in the picture is the Dakota Black Popcorn I grow, and our butternut squash, of course.)

 

Brix testing of Garlic Scapes

 Most of the time, when people talk Brix in Garlic, they mean the clove juice, and a good rating is about 40, and the higher the better. The refractometer I have to use doesn't go that high, however, (I tried it by squishing the juice out of a rocambole clove once, and the line went all the way to the top, maxing it out). I looked for a way to get around that problem, and still use a field crop refractometer, so that I could still get in on the action with all my different varieties and strains of garlic. (A good refractometer costs $200, so far as I'm aware.)

If you've ever scaped a large plot of garlic, you'll know about that sap that drips like crazy out of the cut ends of a scape, and dries white and slightly crusty/itchy. It ruins running shoes and if you don't wash your scaping clothes right away, the smell can linger for weeks. Normally when you use a refractometer for field crops, you have to squish the leaves of soybeans and clover really hard to eek out a drop or two of juice so that you can test it. This scape juice pouring out just seems too easy, and you have to cut them off anyway! But why not, lets test the scape juice. I've done so for four years, on many different varieties to try and establish a baseline, or at least a range of what might be typical for garlic scape juice, and here are my results: Garlic Scape Brix testing at Golden Acres Farm 

For the Love of Earth

 Hello there friends and philosophers,

I have been struggling to figure out what to post, as information seems to be coming at us so fast these days, and everyone has a different opinion about what they hear. I have a lot of different opinions about what I hear too, and finally, it occured to me that by not sharing, I'm effectively censoring myself.  Besides, opinions are meant to be simply a waymarker on the path we are taking, just like footprints, so I'll take step here, and you can decide if you like the boots I'm wearing, or the earth upon which I trod.

Yesterday was the Bell let's talk mental health day, and some of the things I was listening to reminded me that the surest way to support your mental health is to have meaningful work.  I take issue with anyone who arbitrarily divides certain classes of work into essential, and non-essential - what is essential for the body is not the whole of what is essential for the mind or spirit, and denying the importance of some kinds of work is just another way of negating someones life experience, which can have disastrous consequences.  It is important for everyone to decide for themselves what "essential" means to them.

My mother's maternal family grew and marketed vegetables in southern Pennsylvania. I guess you could say they were one of the "lucky" families that made it through the depression with food on the table and a secure place to live, because of their rather default lifestyle. When my grandmother married, and moved to Ontario, she continued to grow a large household garden - not because she was afraid of food shortages - but because it was the only rational way to do it, if you wanted to can and freeze enough to feed your family through the winter. She was ever so relieved when Green Giant figured out how to mechanically process frozen peas that didnt taste like starchy cow fodder. Though they were never as good as garden peas, hand shelled and picked at peak sweetness and tenderness, frozen peas from the grocery store were a reasonable compromise that liberated a lot of time and effort. For reasons of her own, my mother went back to that tradition of shelling and freezing garden peas...its not logical or even "essential" perhaps - modern canning factories can do it more efficiently - but it feeds a part of her soul, and,  in having taught it to her daughters, she keeps a kind of experiential knowledge alive, that has value to us as a family.

Coming into this financial catastrophe that, despite popular belief, is not sitting on our doorstep - it's been an unacknowledged house guest for years - I find that I am taking for granted the enormous wealth creation that has been in my hands, all these years, simply by growing my own food. I'm glad for opportunity to finally understand the value of what I have.

Every time an item is sold, and transferred from maker, to marketer to retailer, to consumer, not only does the government usually take a cut (sales tax) but the initial price that the maker receives becomes a smaller portion of the final cost of the goods. It's almost like inflation, but in real time, on real goods. Each middleman performs a service that is essential to the process of getting that product to the buyer, including advertisers...but what if you didnt have to get it to the buyer? What if some things you could make for yourself?

This is the flip side of consumer economics - saver economics. It hasn't been popular in part because of interest rates being so low for the past two decades. When my parents were first married, it was possible to live off of the interest your savings made for you. Taking out a loan was serious business, and you paid dearly for the time it took for you to pay the money back, and become self sufficient again. Money and time are linked by interest rates. Ironically, at a time when minimum wage is the highest it's ever been, the value of our time, as defined by interest rates, is at its lowest. When your debt doesn't grow, but your pay check does, it sort of looks like a good time to take out a loan; a blank cheque on life, as it were, no matter how artificial the circumstances.

I would not be surprised if the Bank of Canada is now getting close to implementing negative interest rates, as the European central banks have been doing since 2016. Negative interest rates take ownership and savings and make them out to be a liability. Add inflation and you dont need highway robbery to bankrupt people.  

Our essential tools need to be justice, not welfare. Justice slices away untruths and inequalities that otherwise make it impossible to protect an individual's right to properties, or to work for their own benefit. Welfare is a moral sanction that justifies our  tolerance for inequality. 

 It is unethical to take more than you have to give - moreover, it is unsustainable to life on earth - yet that is the financial leadership of first world countries, who would have you believe that deficit is the inevitable truth of humanity's productivity. Think about it: if you agree that the debt our country is carrying is a natural consequence of the most evolved economic system we could possibly facilitate, it means that human beings are parasites, incapable of supplying to their own needs. 

This is grossly untrue. 

I know this from experience because I know what productivity looks like before it becomes drained by the system. I grow my own food. I trade for some things, and I support small business, which is the ethical form of capitalism, and the backbone of democracy. 

  The future will never look exactly like the past, yet the past holds a mirror to our future that defines how far we have come, and in what direction.  

So where are we going, and what will life on earth look like in the future? Well, it's up to all of us to ask this question: Do you smell life in back door deals behind corporate counters, or in back yard gardens, under rotting leaf mulch?  Can you feel it growing abundantly in nurtured soils, or in dirivitive market shares? Can you taste it in nutritious, homegrown vegetables, or in lysol cans? Where do you see life?  

Julie Fleischauer

2020 Garlic Season

Hello Garlic Growers and Enthusiasts,

Our 2020 Garlic Catalogue has been out since August 15th, We are sold out of everything but a few bulbils packets, as of October 2nd. It has been a wonderful garlic season. Thank you to those who placed orders and dropped in at the farm!

  If you haven't already, you can email me to get on the mailing list : Julie Fleischauer goldenacresfarm@hotmail.com or julie.goldenacres@gmail.com

 Our catalogue is posted under the "2020 Catalogue" page. With a short list of what is still available (everything else is sold out). (If you can't find the page and you are using a mobile device, you may have to switch to "view web version")

 This year, we have just been doing pick up orders and shipping, as the Stratford Garlic Festival was our only other venue. Golden Acres Farm is now open by appointment only. 

  If you require, we can provide contact-less pick up for your order. Regular pick-up location is around to the back of the barn, inside the large sliding doors where our drying/storage room is, in the repurposed granary room. If you have picked up garlic in the last couple years, you will know where I mean:

  Contact-less pick up will be inside the small door at the front of the barn:

 Please take note that we do not process credit cards, so please bring cash or a cheque, or prepay by email transfer. Prices this year are $18.00/pound, $9.00/ half pound, and $4.00 / bulb. There will be some 3 lb, 5 lb, and 10 lb limits on the bulk strains this year, and some of the strains will be available  only by the 1/2 pound or by the bulb. This is to encourage small gardeners, and to hopefully make more selection available to everyone. 

We've got some Silver Skins coming out of the ground today, that look fairly promising, so they will be available on the catalogue, sold by the bulb.  The Silver Skins and Creoles were planted this spring. I'm finding Spring planting just for those two kinds is often better than fall planting. I am not offering any spring shipping however, so if you want to try spring planting them, you'll have to store and cold treat them yourself. They keep really well, and cold treatment consists of putting them in the garage, or a cold space, for about a month before planting (just be careful not to freeze the bulbs in minus Celsius conditions).  Otherwise, they can be planted in the fall, with all the other kinds. I suspect that they do better in a protected area anyway, rather than the wide open field where I plant them. 

In general, the garlic did really well this year. I hope that if you've grown garlic, you've had similar success.

 Garlicky Regards, Julie

Stratford Garlic Festival Cancelled for 2020

Vendors got the notice that the Kiwanis Club of Stratford has made the difficult decision to cancel the Garlic Festival this year.
I discovered that it may have been advertised in some media as an up-and-coming event. It was intended to continue this year; however, the ongoing social distancing rules proved too much for the organizers to humanly navigate. It takes an atomic clock to keep up with the news these days. So to clear up confusion wherever possible, I thought I'd put up a notice on my blog.

I expect we will be doing more online sales this year, through the Catalogue that I e-mail to you in August, if you've signed up or asked to be on the mailing list. I also post the Catalogue on this blog in August, under it's own page.

I very much invite customers to pick up their orders at our farm! I am positive we can come up with a comfortable solution for picking up orders in September.

 The half-acre of garlic in our field is looking pretty good so far. Only three leek moths were caught in the traps so far this season, so it looks like the pressure from those pests will be minimal. I'm looking forward to a good harvest!
All the best to you,
Julie

The Beautiful Colour Green

 I love this time of year - when you see something green and gloriously growing, it's such a fresh new sight that you might actually take the time to marvel at it, and give it the attention that it deserves.
 The garlic of course has been up for a while, but it's finally attaining a handsome green, whereas it looked a little frosted and uncertain before. There is a really good stand this year!- I don't know how other growers made out with winterkill this year, but it's virtually non-existent here.
  I've had a few more questions than usual about spring garlic seed this spring, so I thought it'd be fun to show the difference of Spring, versus fall planted garlic:

On the left is Red Russian (a Marbled Purple Stripe) and the rest of the fall planted main crop. Center is Ail Rose de Lautrec ( a Creole) And to the right is Aglio Rosso (also Creole). Both Creoles were put in our vegetable cold storage in mid February, then planted one of the first days of April. 

This is not a perfect comparison - they are different varieties, and the Creoles were significantly smaller in bulb and clove size than the Marbled Purple Stripes to start. But, it gives you an idea of the advantages of planting in the fall.
  And, just to clarify, I don't sell Spring garlic seed. Bulbils and Creole and Silverskins are the only kinds of garlic I recommend planting in spring. The creoles and Silverskins seem to do better because their tender constitutions do not have to bear the brunt of our cold winters, whereas other, "more native" varieties of garlic, thrive in our wintry latitude. Bulbils do well either fall or spring planted, or so I've found. I wish I could plant Turbans in the spring, but keeping them dormant and in good quality is really not that easy. It's the quickest growing - fastest spoiling of any garlic. It's always sprouting by the new year. Not something you want to take a chance on for spring planting, especially since a seed slowly uses up it's energy reserves, and has less vigour in the spring. The effect is mitigated in Creoles and silverskins, because they keep the best. In the words of Bob Wildfong, Director of Seeds of Diversity Canada, "a seed is a baby plant, it needs food." When it's stored correctly, it uses up less food,but it still needs something. A dormant seed uses the food stored in it's body, which is why old seed sprouts and often grows slower, if it sprouts at all. Sometimes seeds die. (I'm talking about garden seeds now, lettuce, kale, peas, and whatever other kind of seed you can think of.) Fresh seed is always ideal.

I'm excited to see what kind of innovation will appear in gardening techniques this year. I never used to think wecould grow basil on our clay-loam soil here, but it turns out we can, if we hill it up and mix compost and a bit of sand in the soil directly around and under the basil plug. A lot is possible these days that once wasn't. We have a lot more tools,and ideas about how to use those tools. I haven't heard about a run on chicken wire and pest protection yet, but I'm sure it will hit in due course. There's a sort of irony in that farmers have felt criticized for years about how we deal with small, furry opportunists. And they say there is more wildlife in the city than there is in the country, (population by square meters, I'm thinking, which would make sense, since the  same is true of the number of people in a city).  I guess I will find out, with my city garden this year. The house I bought in Stratford was built in 1899. It's amazing to think how people lived 120 years ago. I have such gratitude for the foundation of knowledge they have built for us to stand on.
  Julie