First Garlic Harvest ‘09

Yikes! I don’t know about everyone else, but harvest time came nearly 2 weeks early this year! Usually I plant around Halloween with the idea that a later sowing will delay the harvest until after the 4th of July holiday. This year, however, the plants fooled me.

I can only figure it’s the weather. We have had one of the driest seasons in 116 years, including two periods of scorching heat (by our standards). The drought, combined with frequent winds strong enough to blow chairs off our deck, have made keeping on top of watering especially tricky this year.

Watering is such a balancing act. The garlic needs good drainage; too wet a soil (and other damp conditions) invite molds and fungi. Too dry, however, and the bulbs shrivel and wilt in our choking, clay-based soil. Mulch can help conserve moisture; but it also keeps the plants a bit too cool, provides a safe haven for insects and rodents, and encourages fungal growth. And then there’s the advice not to water the last few weeks before harvest, assuming you know when that is. We hit a hot spell late June – to water or not to water? Last year, the molds wiped out a lot of my crop. I didn’t want to take a chance.

And so I bit my nails as I watched the plants, obviously a bit stressed, as their bottom leaves browned and they neared the end of their life cycle. I could only think that if it is true that flavors intensify under adverse growing conditions, my garlic is bound to be particularly strong this year.

When to harvest is a bit more art than science. We all like to say that when we don’t really know what we’re doing, even though we’ve been doing it for years and years. But the fact is, the bulb can increase a lot during its last month. Harvest too early? Wimpy bulbs. Too late? No storage value; earwigs and other bugs move in. Better a little early than late.

Sometimes there is only one way to tell: test a few. “Green” (i.e., uncured) garlic is delightfully mellow. Gently cooked, it spreads on a crumpet like soft butter…and if that isn’t reason enough to test whether its “ready,” I don’t know what is!

Dig the bulbs when the bottom leaves die off but a few green ones remain. Sometimes, though, with the tips yellowed and the bottom leaves brown, and if the plant is looking pretty dry, you start thinking that harvesting is an act of mercy. Just do it.

And now that I am finally getting them out of the ground, what do we get? RAIN! Lots of it.

Aaaggh! Will the dreaded mold and fungus return? I don’t know. I will do my best to chase them off with good air circulation. And wait.

In the meantime, the plants that remain are breathing a sigh of relief, and I have to admit, that rain feels mighty good.

Gardening is like that. So many little things along the way can derail the whole project. You tackle it like it’s all under control, but in the end, you realize nothing is in your control. And you just appreciate it for what it is.

(more about our garlic & other backyard garden musings at http://barbolian.com)

Spring Cleaning in the Garlic Beds!

Garlic is up! Time to get weeding!

Ok, folks, spring is officially here, and there is no time to lose!

Barbolian Garlic Status Report: The garlic is growing strong! Better than strong: these sprouts look like my best crop ever! All that work that went into building the beds has really paid off!

Of course, alongside the garlic, the weeds. With longer days and warmer temps, they are already taking off and robbing the garlic of all those nutrients I carefully worked into the soil.

Garlic does not compete well with weeds. The garlic may be strong, but the weeds want to take over the world. We must not let them get that first stranglehold. The war begins, quietly.

The weeds are thick on the southern sides, testimony to the benefits of a raised bed and a southern exposure. Over the winter, they have served their purpose, holding the soil in place during heavy rains and strong winds. But now they must go. The beds keep the soil soft. Weeding is labor-intensive, but easy. I toss them into the paths between the beds, let them dry out for a few days, and then till them into the soil. Usually just turning them over with a shovel is enough, but I have a little tiller if I want to fire it up. I am finding more and more that the tiller isn’t that much faster, and it comes at a cost, but that discussion should be saved for a different post.

Next, I will help the garlic be strong in the face of adversity. I will support its drive to reproduce. (And then I will eat its delectable young.)

For now, it is primarily a leafy plant. The more it grows now, the more reserves it will have later for making bulbs. After eradicating the weeds, I will be side-dressing the garlic with a little blood meal to give it a nitrogen boost. Over the next few weeks, I will also periodically spray the plants with diluted seaweed and fish fertilizer, but will minimize any nitrogen fixes once the bulb formation starts.

Fortunately, the garlic pretty much holds it own at the moment, which leaves time for all the other spring chores: starting seeds, getting the veggie garden in shape, tilling in the green manure, doing any last-minute pruning, cleaning out the dead debris so plants can breathe – and tragic site: picking up all those branches that broke off the big fir tree after that recent heavy snow!

Ah, but that first daffodil! It is our assurance that warmer days are ahead (it’s still so freakin’ cold!). If I work hard, I stay warm. A little effort now will pay off big-time later. Visions of garlic sauce over pasta keep me going. Heavy on the garlic, please.

Welcome Back Garlic!

January and February can be a real mixture of weather, and here in the Pacific Northwest, we are no exception. The rain and snow this year for us were a statistician’s dream.  Even without extremes, storms regularly blow in off the west coast, with winds strong enough to break trees, while other afternoons can be deceivingly warm with the promise of spring.

Then the nights freeze solid again, glare ice coats the roadways, and thick frost ices every nook and crevice.

It might be a time for us to hunker down inside, but there is a lot going on in the garlic patch out back. Tender garlic shoots are bravely poking through the soil. Look closely! I DO SEE GREEN!!!

They seem so exposed – so vulnerable. I did not mulch. There is no snow cover for protection….

I encourage them to be strong.

Stay tuned….

Garlic is Harvested and Curing!

Hooray! The garlic is harvested and is now 2 weeks into the curing process.

What do 1300 bulbs of hanging garlic look like?

Granted, by some standards, that is not a lot. But for me – and for many who buy a few bulbs now and then – it’s like, wow – over one thousand bulbs!

How to describe what it is like to step into a small room, surrounded by hanging garlic, and inhale the dense pungent aroma …

It makes you slip into visions of roasted bulbs, garlic bread, rich sauces, stir fries, pestos, tapenades ….

It’s enough to make one swoon ….

Do we have to wait?

No!

Indulge NOW!

* * *

(For more about our garlic, visit our commercial site at Barbolian Fields.)

Garlic Scape Recipes: Pesto

I have been asked – no – begged – to reveal my soon-to-be-famous recipes for pesto and hummus using fresh garlic scapes. Ok. I bend to peer pressure. But not without this warning:

EATING THIS STUFF CAN BE ADDICTIVE!

And to lure you into my web, I also offer a recipe for homemade crackers to go with them.

Go ahead…try these…don’t let anyone see you…scoop them into small bowls and go off to your happy place…we’ll see you in a few days. I tantalize you first with the pesto. You have to come back for the hummus and crackers.

GARLIC SCAPE PESTO:

First, a caveat: the problem with this recipe – or maybe it’s me – is that nothing is really measured and substitutions are made freely, depending on what you have on hand. If you are a freestyle cook, you understand this mentality. There are a few things you must have, namely, garlic and olive oil, or it simply isn’t pesto. Personally, I grow a lot of basil and several varieties, but I am not terribly fond of it in pesto (I know, this is blasphemy to my Sicilian heritage), because most recipes ask for a lot of it and it is too overpowering. Now the garlic – I grow lots – I use lots – it is incredibly overpowering – and if you are a true garlic lover, that is just how it should be. Ok – the recipe:

1 doz. garlic scapes
1 cup, more or less, of parsley (I grow a lot of this, too – it balances well with garlic and is available most of the year)
1 1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 – 1 tsp sea salt (you don’t need much)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice

Chop, blend, or whatever you need to do to make it smooth. Yes, you can add Parmesan if you have it – or if you have pine nuts, those are great – and of course, you can totally change the taste with aromatic fresh basils, but I don’t always have those things, and the craving must be fed, regardless. What kind of recipe is this, you ask? Ok, not really a recipe, more like a guideline.

But now that you’ve made it, you must face your ethical dilemma: go hide or go share. Your choice. I won’t tell.

Garlic Status – Summer Solstice ‘08

Despite the cold spring here in the Pacific Northwest, the garlic has been thriving! We got everything weeded over the weekend and thoroughly watered. You can almost feel them reaching upward, waiting for that promised sunshine!

As you can see from the photos, I planted the garlic rather densely in beds (4 rows/bed) this year, which has really facilitated the weeding, fertilizing, & watering tasks! The picture in the lower right quadrant shows 2 plots in the background that were recently tilled under — I had grown a green manure crop of a combination of clover, vetch, and ryegrass; I will be planting them again soon with more of the same; these will be garlic beds for next year and 2010. Yes, those are the Olympic Mountains in the background. Gorgeous morning!

Also pictured are the tall spikes, often called “spears” of the elephant garlic. The hardneck varieties send smaller shoots, called “scapes”; pictured are the tight-curling scapes of the rocambole hardnecks. I have been cutting these off (yes! you can have some if you are in the neighborhood!) and using them in pestos, salad dressings, & stir fries. They also add an unusual touch to floral arrangements. I am making some garlic hummus to bring to a barbecue this weekend, and am thinking about how the scapes might be quite beautiful pickled in a jar! Mmm!

I figure bulb harvesting is about a month or so away (a little late this year). I may get one more watering in, but will stop the water after that, which will help prevent molds and extend the shelf-life of the bulbs.

We might hit 70 today when the official summer starts at 4:30 today! That is welcome news for those of us who have been wearing sweatshirts all spring! Celebrate the solstice!

(visit my official garlic website at http://barbolian.com)

Snow to Spring in One Week! Pacific Northwest Crazy Weather!

Ok – Mother Nature had her laugh last week. Enough already!

The garlic, always of strong stature and symbol of fortitude, survived unscathed, tips only slightly yellowed from the experience. Primroses, strawberries, and daffodils, too, though some bent under hail, managed to shake the icy crystals in the days that followed. At a little higher elevation, our cherry trees had not yet blossomed under the snow. I worried about the bees that might have been caught unaware in this pseudo-spring foolery. The winds whipped through here relentlessly, knocking over shelves in the greenhouse and spilling sprouts and summer hopes to the floor.

The winds died down, I filled the hummingbird feeder, and was surrounded within minutes, one even buzzing me as I hung it up.

And this week, lo and behold, a new spring! The cherry blossoms have opened, a frog enjoyed a spot of sunshine beneath the shadows of leaves.

Ahhhh, spring . . . how much more we appreciate it now!

SNOW in April in the Pacific Northwest!

What’s the deal here — SNOW and HAIL in APRIL in the Pacific Northwest?!?! This is UNHEARD of! The garlic is weathering it out, although I notice the tips have turned a bit yellow. I am convinced now that this phenomenon is because it gets a big growth spurt in the early spring, which is more susceptible to frost and cold weather.

Meanwhile, the lovage has exploded to over waist high and the weeds are trying hard to keep up. In fact, they almost are!

Here on the farm, we have been rescuing strawberries from quackgrass and morning glory: my punishment for letting my garden go a bit last fall!

We’ve also planted our potatoes, a few salad greens, and some extra mint.

Spring will soon be here – or so the calendar tells us!

Moles, voles, and vermine

Anyone out there have a mole & gopher problems in their yard and garden?

I don’t have all the facts, but I suspect many of these rodents are beneficial in that they eat a fair number of insects. Unfortunately for them, I have no idea how many bad bugs they kill for me – I just see the mounds of dirt here, there, and everywhere, my plants toppling over, and the expressways they provide for other critters to my fresh veggies. Whether they are actually moles, voles, gophers, groundhogs, or other rodent species makes little difference to me, but I draw the line when they start getting into my garlic patch!

I have run across a variety of ideas for running them off:

• Running a pipe from a vehicle exhaust to the hole: Gassing them seems a bit extreme to me and not something I advocate. Too much like WWII. Needless suffering is not acceptable in my book.
• Running a hose down the hole and flooding it: I admit I have been known to try this, but it is a huge waste of water and they just come up somewhere else.
• Battery-fired electrical jolts: Those little rods that you push into the ground seemed like an interesting solution as long as you didn’t mind buying a bunch of batteries. What do they do to worms and microbes? I quit using them.
• Large “watch” animals: I used to have 5 llamas and have always had an assortment of dogs and cats; however, as “watch” animals, they did more watching than running off. We currently have an old yellow lab who is pretty good at pointing them out and sometimes does a little surface digging when she is feeling frisky.
• Kitty litter poured down the holes: Our cats are outdoor cats, so I haven’t tried this, but I hear it works. Personally, I would worry about chemicals and parasites. My cat, however, thinks the whole garden is his personal cat box, and particularly enjoys doing his “business” wherever I happen to be gardening. I get a little area cleaned out and he promptly comes right over and squats beside me. It is very annoying! He cares little about my parasite phobia.
• Cayenne pepper – buy by the gallon at Costco. You might need several gallons if you have a large garden. Sprinkle around in dry weather and re-sprinkle after a rain. Not very practical in my case.
• Juicy Fruit gum: My grandfather swore by this one – and only Juicy Fruit would do. He would simply stick a stick down the hole. We lived in an area that had a bounty on groundhogs, so he could have been out there shooting them. It hasn’t worked as well for me, though.
• Wine bottles: If you have stuck with me this far, here is my personal method by which I swear. Take a bottle of wine out to your field or garden where you have a mole problem. Yes, that’s right: a bottle of wine. Those large 1.5-liter bottles are just right, but you can go smaller. Cheap wine is fine, but I suggest you get something you like. Bringing along a friend is optional. Sit down and drink it. Remember, if you have a friend, sharing is caring. Curse all you want – or not – the end result is about the same – but since I mentioned I swear by this, it doesn’t hurt to vent a little, and in fact, it might help. When the bottle is empty (no use wasting cheap wine!), put it upside down into the mole hole — not too far. That’s it. Walk, stumble, crawl away, as appropriate.

My theory on why it works is twofold: 1) the wind rattles the bottle and causes vibrations and noises that the rodent finds disturbing, and 2) you no longer care.

Witness my field full of mole hills (no bottles out here – moles are free to blindly roam):

This picture shows correct placement of the wine bottle:

Now look at my garlic patch: almost completely mole-free. Ok, maybe it’s hard to tell by this photo, but trust me. This is soft, tilled up, enriched soil. Normally they would be having a field day here.

Good luck to you all, and happy gardening!

Garlic Field Status

  Mid-February and the garlic is looking good!

 AND – to further prove that spring is on its way – the rhubarb is pushing up its gnarly head!