Garlic growing

This gardening year is drawing to a close and this years wandering aimlessly’s season is just opening up. We have about 4500 garlic in the ground. We had to create new beds this year, as garlic needs a 3 year crop rotation. So we needed to create about 1000 square feet of new bedding.

We took out a lot of raspberries to make more room for garlic. We got 4 loads of donkey manure from the Donkey refuge https://turtlevalleydonkeyrefuge.com. What a great place, check out the pictures. We decided this year to be extremely generous with our manure, so each bed got nice and thick (3 year aged) manure. WE WANT BIG GARLIC next year.

We then put KRAFT paper on top of the beds, (the paper is to keep down the weeds),and then put fresh wood chips down on top. We had to cut down a few Fir trees this year that were too close to our house (fire concerns) and we got all the limbs chipped, hence the fresh wood chips.

Then we were “gifted” a load of leaves from our neighbour, who usually burns them. We convinced him that we could make MUCH better use out of them by tucking our garlic under them for the winter. (we did NOT tell him that composting leaves is better for the environment as well)

PRESTO…. covering up all the garlic beds with a thick layer of leaves. NOW the garlic is ready for the winter. Some years we get a hard frost, and the ground freezes, before it snows, which is not good for the garlic. So all of what we have done here is to provide some insulation. The garlic is technically under 8 inches of stuff, much less likely to freeze down there. In the spring when it starts to warm, we will move a lot of this “mulch” away from the garlic so it will not make them too wet.

Of course I need to keep track of which type of garlic is where…. this is my complex record keeping “program”.

Another new process we have started this year, out of sheer desperation for controlling weeds, is to use the thick landscape fabric on top of the ground with the plans to move it when we want to “rotate crops” My theory is that the “carcasses” of the weeds and plants under the fabric, die and then compost in place. So when we move the fabric the soil will be enriched and weed free. So everything that is not planted is covered.

We have also been working on Motorhome, “customizing” it. For the past year, we have been largely camping in places without hookups, essentially going solar. SOOO we have not used the large convection/microwave since we put in the stove/oven. Sadly I did not get a very good “before” picture, but this is picture of the stove/oven with the convection microwave above it.

Ken has taken it out, and created a beautiful motorhome “pantry”. Which holds an amazing about of stuff. He does such beautiful work 🙂

Ken has also been working hard to make sure that nothing goes wrong with the motorhome, here checking the tires…..lubing what needed lubing to keep us on the road.

Of note, check out the beautiful deck he built this summer, then we wanted an awning, so he went to Craigs list and found an awning perfect for our house….50$. Now we can sit out on our deck, and pretend we are in a French Cafe. 🙂

Our “other” new feature this year is the jeep wrangler we are now towing.

Now we are down in Kelowna in the pouring rain, which is always the way we spend the first days of camping each fall. Fortunate to have Josh, our son, looking after the house for the winter. Much love to all who choose to follow us, and our obsessive life. Janet

Well its beginning to look a bit like garlic….. everywhere you go. There’s a bit of it out to dry…..

a bit of it hanging high

But most of it still in the fields….(not sure what the rhyme pattern there was)

So last October we planted about 4000 garlic. We have been growing it for about 7 years now, expanding our numbers each year, and here we are.

I thought I would explain the life cycle of a garlic, as it is much more complex than you would think…. or simpler. Garlic clones itself. Garlic, like potatoes, is multiplied by vegetative reproduction rather than by sexual reproduction (seeds). Individual garlic cloves are planted and they each produce a bulb in which the cloves all have the same genetic makeup as the original clove.

I cannot believe I have not photographed the umbrels before, so I found a picture online. This is the “flower” that the garlic plant sends up. It is called an umbrel and the tiny parts inside are called bulbils. They are essentially teensy garlic cloves.

Usually you do not see the umbrel of the garlic plant because they usually get cut off earlier before the flower develops, which is what we did a few weeks ago to allow the plant to put all of its energy into make a large garlic bulb instead of bulbils.

THIS is called a scape, and the little pointed thing at the end of the scape develops into the umbrel shown above if left on the plant. So here is my fridge filled with a few hundred scapes ready for the market tomorrow. Scapes are an under appreciated part of the garlic plant that only those who shop at farmers markets ever find out about……….. OR if you have a friend (like me) who has an overabundance of scapes, because I have grown so many garlic.

I should add that Scapes are a delicacy that are a cross between an asparagus and a bean and a garlic. They last for weeks in the fridge and you can use them in almost any dish. Another very unique thing about Garlic Scapes is that they are not something you will find in warmer climates.Only Hardneck Garlic produces a scape! (FINALLY SOMETHING we can grow that they cannot grow in the tropics) There are 2 main types of garlic. The type you will find in the stores ( that comes from China) is usually soft neck garlic. It tends to do better in warmer climates. It does not need the really cold winter that the HARDNECK garlic needs to divide into cloves. Hardneck cultivars tend to have a more complex flavour profile than softnecked ones, being richer, spicier, and generally more ‘garlicky’. Hardneck cultivars also tend to have a larger average clove size, which, due to their plumpness, regular shape, and thicker skin, are easier to peel. SO if you have not already done so …. try hardneck garlic.

We do grow Softnecks, (a small number of them ) they do not send out a scape, but instead send their bulbils out the side of the stem like shown here.

I am just now thinking what it must be like to be an elementary school teacher tasked with teaching the “facts of life”…….So much to tell ….. I shall continue this story, in a future blog……… growing garlic with bulbils…

So the other thing about garlic is that you can eat it fresh. It has great flavour and it is much easier to peel, but the only time of year you can eat if fresh is about now. Most of the process with garlic is to dry and cure it so it will last over the winter, so you can have garlic year round. So right now you can buy garlic that has not been cured, tastes wonderful, its not something you would be able to keep until Christmas. … but then why wait until christmas?

So the garlic you will find at the markets now is called “fresh garlic” and the only difference between that and what you would find in the stores is that it is not something you will want to keep for months because it has not been cured.

So our first farmers Market of the year is tomorrow in Celista. Celista farmers Market. We will have raspberries

SCAPES… fresh garlic, Dragons tongue bean seeds.

Next week we shall have black berries and heirloom tomatoes. IT STARTS

Much Love to all, this IS our most recent obsession.

Janet

mymostrecentobsession

“..another seasons promise in the ground” SRogers

Garlic… what a great time of year.