But growing it really stress us out.
On November 17, 2018 we had our first significant snowfall here in Upstate NY. This is much too early and THF is simply not ready for this. Once again Mother Nature is reminding us that she is in charge and we had scramble to get caught up with our prewinter chores. It is always a matter of getting things picked up, stored away and prepped for the cold weather and snow. We had so many plans that fell by the wayside. Getting the lavender pruned was one of the bigger ones. The wet and nasty weather we had in October prevented us from getting out to THF for more than the absolute necessities.
At the last possible minute we made a mad dash to get just one row of garlic planted. We lucked into a Saturday when Jo was not working and amazingly, it was not raining. What it was; cold and very muddy. 
I offered up the unused but already tilled row that I had planned to test some medicinal herbs in. We just had to pull off the landscape cloth and till it up a bit more. Sounds a lot easier than it actually was. The ground was so wet from the constant rain that it stuck to everything. Our boots, hands and tools. And the tiller, making it a major bear to work with. Ron had to do some serious manhandling to get the blasted thing up and down the row. And of course we had to deal with the rocks. Lots and lots of rocks. 
There was no way we were going to make the same lazy mistake we did last year. We made sure we took the needed extra time to run the straw through the chipper shredder. It is the only way to get rid of most of the seeds. I cannot be sure but am pretty convinced that it was the massive amount of straw growing along side our garlic that caused the majority of our losses. It was a long day with hours of hard work and exhausting, but such a relief when we were finally finished. One important thing checked off our must get done list.
In the midst of all the things we really needed to get done, Ron was busy working on his next project. Finally getting what will actually look like a “Tiny House” on the farm. He went back to his Amish farmer/builder to have him get started on another shed. This one would be taller with a loft on each end. These will be used for storage and other future projects. We have already learned that up is best when it comes to protection of our stuff. Vivid memories of the flooding in July 2017 still make us worry when a flash flood warning pops up on the TV or cell phone. And I want to use it to store all the props needed for our selling events. The purpose of our house shaped shed will really be preparation for our many products, especially the shiitake cleaning. It is time to move more of the operations out of our home and out to the actual farm. Our first shed will be for storage of our equipment and the drying processes. In the coming years we will have our lavender and calendula air drying there. As well as our garlic.
Of course Ron (being Ron) he just had to complicate the issue by deciding that we needed to move the first shed from it’s original site. It was getting too much of a full day’s sun which left the interior too hot for our purposes. Even with the solar fans running full speed, the temps were going to be just too high to safely dry our herbs. In the new location, the afternoon sun should heat it just enough.
And then in April 2019, we knew we had done good again. The lovely reward of our hard, wet work. Yeah, we ran out of our chopped straw for the row, but the ones on the end still grew nicely. Always so nice to see the garlic sprouts, but there was no time to revel in it. We were so busy getting ready for the new year that we walked by our rows without much thought most days. We always grow the hard neck varieties of garlic as we really like the scapes. I make a fabulous garlic scape pesto from them. It can be frozen too, so we can enjoy it all year long. This year I decided to try pickling the scapes. They won’t be ready for months, so they are sitting out of the way in our frig. I will let you know how they turn out.
We had some seriously hot days in July which made all of us think twice about working on out on Tiny House Farm, but the garlic had to be harvested. I was not going to lose it again. Armed with pitchfork and my trusty hat, I tackled the job. We didn’t have the yield that we had back in 2015 and 2016, but it was respectable and I was happy with it. For the first time since we first got the 4 wheeler, I actually drove it around the field. Ron was busy with him own project so it was up to me to get the garlic from field into drying shed.
And there it is. The fruits of our labor that we can now enjoy for many months. For all you garlic lovers out there, whether you grow it yourself or buy from another grower; do some research about fermenting it. I did that in 2017 using the directions on the internet for what they call lacto-fermented garlic and we used the delicious results until they ran out in June of this year. My first attempt was only two pint sized jars. I will be setting up many more jars this year. I just have to make sure I have enough room in our frig for what I ferment. I froze several bags of the really small cloves we salvaged but they don’t work as well as the fermented garlic does.
Yesterday was another lovely morning and it was finally time to get our garlic out of the shed and safely into our cellar. There would be no leaving it as not so important and waiting until we find time on another day. That is what we did last year and what garlic we did have froze and thawed several times over the course of late October and November last year. We ended up tossing out all of it out. That was a very sad day.
This is our end result. This picture doesn’t do our haul justice as we have just over 12 pounds of garlic. Not enough to sell to anyone, but more than enough for our needs. And more set aside that we will be planting again come fall. We will stick with growing just for ourselves from now on. Our original plans were to grow enough to sell. But there are so many growers in our area, including many home gardeners that we could not find consistent buyers for THF garlic. We made the decision last year when we did just one row. Before we knew that our local restaurant customers would be looking for good quality garlic in quantity. At the Syracuse Regional Farmers Market, Ron struck up a conversation with one of local farmers. That resulted in a north country garlic contact who will sell their certified organic garlic to us in multiple pound increments. They also have organic shallots that Ron buys. He then re-sells these products to our customers. And we will make it available to family and friends who are looking for the good stuff, one pound at a time. Ron is all about making good and solid local connections. He tends to find a lot of same minded folks who are happy to work with him. This has expanded his access to variety of local products. As our growing list of customers has found out. They ask him if he has or knows where they can find this or that and he proceeds to find a way to get it for them. Ron thrives in his new role as facilitator. He does love a challenge. As anyone who knows him will attest.