We started with a open field.  Ron hadn’t even planned to start growing anything out on the farm in 2015.  But plans change and there we were, getting ready to start our garlic.  We are after all, supposed to be a garlic farm.  That is the line that Ron used to sell me on this adventure.

Ron did some figuring based on the pounds of garlic he ordered and the space needed.  First step was to use his manly brush hog to cut a swatch through the knee high grass.

That of course was the easy part.  I have already shared the story of the tilling and rocking picking in our soon to be garlic patch.  And what fun that was.

By March we were seeing the first signs of our growing garlic, popping up through the straw mulch.  That not only would help retain moisture, but would prevent any ground heaving from the winter cold.

April arrived and the garlic was growing strong.  The straw was actually doing a pretty good job of fighting off the weeds too.  Just not around the edges.

In May the garlic was looking fabulous, strong and healthy.   If all goes well, we can expect a good crop this year.

It is June now and we are now going to harvest the garlic scapes.  They make some of the best pesto around.  This year I threw in some of my backyard garden kale and it was very yummy.   Added bonus with the kale, the pesto is that much better for you.

This year I ran the scapes through my food processor and then frozen them in 8 oz containers.  Now if I have the craving for pesto I can just grab a bag from the freezer and throw them into the processor with the rest of the ingredients.  I still cannot be sure if it is best to make the pesto and freeze it or make it fresh each time.  Too many experts giving their opinions.  I will have to figure it out for myself.

A farmer and his garlic.  A heart warming site.

Sunday July 31 and harvest day is here.  Raining,  but doesn’t matter.  It is time to get the garlic out of the ground and into the drying tent.

It is damp out at THF which  makes the harvesting just a bit slower.  We have to gently wack each bulb to get as much of the dirt off.  Before long all three of us are pretty muddy.  We planted three different varieties so we have to keep them in separate piles.  We grew German White before and really liked it, but added German Red and Italian Red to the mix. Some serious tasting will need to be done to decide which one is our favorite.

Lovely piles of garlic.  They smell so good.  We are delighted at how well it grew.  Were not certain it would.  Our field sat fallow for at least 10 years, so that helped.  Of course we had a series of cover crops planted as green manure and added no chemicals.  Once the garlic was planted in October, we pretty much let nature take its course.  We did start watering once the summer hit hard.  A serious lack of rain in our area this year has caused worry for farmers of all levels.  Whatever we did, or didn’t do, we ended up with a good harvest.  Of course we cannot be sure until we try them all.  They have to taste good or all is for naught.

Now we have to cut off most of the stem and get the bulbs into boxes and back home.   Jo and I tackled that part of the project.  We wanted to get it done before the rain came down even harder.

With Ron’s Transit in the shop, we had to stuff our boxes and bags of garlic into the car’s trunk.  We had planned on needed 3 boxes for all the garlic.   We ended up using garbage bags to hold what would not fit into the box.  Next year we will need a better plan.

Garlic is all pulled.  We tossed the stems back onto the straw.  They will decompose nicely and add more good stuff back to the soil.  Besides, too tired to even think about bringing it all home to our compost bin.

Ron had to put together another couple of drying trays.  The ones we used over the last few years are now pulling pussy willow duty.  Once he was done, Jo and I got dirty all over again pulling each bulb out of the boxes and setting them onto the trays.   It will be at least a week before the dirt has fully dried and starts to fall off, but it will be  3 – 6 weeks before the garlic is ready.  All depending on the weather.  The more rain we get, the longer it will take.  Cannot wait, fresh garlic.  Nothing is better than that.  Most of this lovely stuff will be used for seed stock.  After all, 2017 is the year we plan to actually sell some of our yummy products.

This is next year’s garlic patch waiting for us to get started.  We will be planting double the amount in just a few months.  There will be more rock picking in my future.  I so cannot wait.