The Garlic Harvest
Back in the fall, after the intensity of summer, we started to work in the garden again. Generally August and September are survival months, moving through the hottest of days before we can begin thinking of fall gardening again.
So once October and November rolled around we were ready to get back to it. This last fall we planted garlic, as we do most years. This time we did several long rows in the chicken field. We didn’t have seed garlic left from last year’s harvest and just ended up picking up some grocery store garlic. This particular variety produced garlic scapes which we also harvested for various dishes before we picked the garlic bulbs themselves.
One day, among a string of rainy days, the garlic was discovered to be fairly large. We were expecting a lot more rain and so we decided to pull it before it could get water-logged. Stewart was working and I was busy inside with the little ones so we put Abram to the task.
He began to lug bucket after bucket brimming with garlic and just a bit of soil into the house. After a while it became evident that there was more garlic than I had expected. As Abram brought in his bucket loads, we began to spread it out on the kitchen floor as we awaited a more permanent space to be decided upon.
Eventually a third of the kitchen floor was covered in garlic several heads deep. What a blessing! We still have some in the pallet garden from seed given to us by a neighbor. That harvest will, Lord willing, come a little later.
We’ve started to eat this batch of garlic and Stewart said that raw it may be the most pungent he’s tasted. I’ve been grating it into salads and other dishes and of course cook with it continuously. Besides all of the general eating, I have plans to ferment some and then we’ll try to save some for seed if we can.
Growing garlic always reminds me that the increase is given by the Lord. So many crops we have tried and failed at and not without a fair amount of effort. And then we put garlic in the ground, the Lord brings the rain, and multiplies a single small clove into a large head of goodness.
In terms of the garden, once the garlic was pulled, the boys each planted a section of beans. I believe two of the rows are dedicated to good old green beans and the third is climbing asparagus beans with sunflowers planted as a living trellis. Golly, I love this process.
What’s happening in your garden?
Isn’t God good?
A living trellis…that’s a neat idea!
It is great to see the plantation of garlic plant. Thanks Shannon for sharing this experience. Keep posting 🙂
We roast it when I have an abundance. Chop the top part of the head off(leaving the cloves exposed) peel most of the paper off but not all. Place each cut head with cut head up in a muffin tin. Cover with with a quick shot of grapeseed or olive oil or melted coconut oil, paying mind to let it seep down into the head. Cover tightly with tinfoil and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes at 350. After cooling squeeze the cloves out of the heads(with all that yummy oil too!) into a jar. (Little hands LOVE to squeeze those cloves out into the jar!) Keeps in the fridge(and freezes too!) for a couple weeks. Then you can simply spoon out a few cloves(or many!) that spread beautifully on bread for a sandwich, or no worrying about sauteing it before cooking with it.. I eat it by the spoonful. Thank you so much for blogging, I get excited every time I find you have posted- you have a beautiful family and I have learned a great deal from your sharing of experiences.
I love garlic! and I also find it to be easier to grow than other veggies. Temperatures in our area are still not optimal for planting, but we cleaned all our raised beds and are now going through the compost and refilling all the bed with a layer of the lush goodness.
Hooray for garlic! Abram looks so handsome and very strong. Is he the son who built a gate for his fenced in garden patch? Thank you again for sharing with us. I wish you lived near Sheboygan.
I’ve just put my garlic in in Australia and its come up in tiny green shoots already 🙂 I love the waiting potential of garlic. It’s like potatoes…plant one and be blessed with a bounty!
Abraham did a very good job with his harvest! Well done!
We thought our garlic may have been damaged by all the late rain and freezing weather here in Thunder Bay last fall before we received enough snow cover. We covered the patch with leaves and straw for extra insulation which worked. We have 8, eight foot rows popping up. An extra blessing is our retired patch that also had leeks last year has a number of volunteer garlic growing from the mini garlic when you let the Scapes mature, open up and fall into the soil. The volunteers from last falls harvest were just one large bulb about the size of a Canadian Loonie OR Tonnie coin. They are actually great for shaving bits off for frying home-fried breakfast potatoes.
Last night it was -3*C so we will wait until early June for planting. I just transferred some Butternut trees that a squirrel had planted from a neighbours trees 5 houses away. For 5 years i thought they were walnut trees because the nut is similar in size. They had to be moved because they were on the south side of the garden and would have created too much shade. On the last one I used a lever on a wooden block with a nylon sling around the root ball and trunk. The tap roots are almost as long as the tree is high so i will transfer them at a lot younger age in the future.
Blessings to Abram for being such a good helper.