Homestead Update

We have a lot going on around the homestead. I always seem to have multiple projects going on at the same time. But, I have one project that needs to be done last week.

This is a teaser on my chicken tractor / tank. A full post will come later. It is turning out really nice. Just not fast enough.

These gals are the reason I need that chicken tractor done now. They are totally ready to get out of this brooder. They jump out all the time and run around the spare bedroom. Just a heads up, if you read that brooding chickens in the house is a bad idea because of the dust they produce, listen carefully to that sage advice. I swear there is a 1/16 of an inch of dust on everything!

The garlic is doing great. These are the soft neck varieties. I am never buying garlic from the store again.

These are the hard neck varieties. Once I harvest them I plan on building a raised berry circle in this spot. But that will have to wait until I harvest these, look for the berry post later in the year. 

Planting Garlic

After much procrastinating I finally got around to planting the garlic I harvested earlier this year. In any climate zone, garlic should be planted after the first frost when the ground has cooled. If you do not have a first frost, or any frost for that matter, I guess you can plant whenever. The recommendation is to plant in the spring in those climates.

 

 All of this garlic came from six bulbs originally. On the left are my hard neck varieties and on the right are the soft neck varieties. I am going to have so much garlic at the next harvest!

This is one of the hard neck varieties. If you look at the one on the right you will see a twist in the center stalk. I found the easiest way to get the stalk out was to twist it until it broke. The stalk is very tough. I didn't get a good picture of it but the twist went up the stalk and reminded me of braided twine. I bet you could use them for cordage. I may try to make some and post about it later. 

I missed some hard-neck scapes when I cut them back earlier this year. A bulbil will form if you let the scapes mature. You can grow new garlic plants from these if you want. I opted to plant the actual bulbs. If you want to use the bulbils, you must "chill" them before you plant to pull it out of its dormant state. This is according to my Father and the internet. In fact my dad thinks I am crazy for planting the actual bulbs. Most people will put them in the freezer over night to "chill" them. I have never tried this, so don't yell at the idiot blogging on the interwebz if it doesn't work. 

Here are the viable cloves. Some of the cloves went bad as they were curing. This only happened to a few cloves, so I had a pretty good harvest of usable cloves. Not to mention a bunch of dry tinder to start fires with. It took me about an hour to separate the cloves from the bulbs. Do not peel the cloves, just separate the cloves from the bulbs. The cloves will be perfectly fine planted with the skin on.

This is the bed I grew garlic in last year. Since I had less soft-neck cloves than hard-neck, I decided to use this as the soft-neck bed and build another bed for the hard-neck. I had to fight the oregano in the bed next to this, it decided to expand its borders. So did the creeping charlie I let run wild in the garden area. You can see mint creeping its way in from the bottom right. Nature abhors a vacuum. 

I mulched the bed with a layer of straw then a layer of pine needles. Once the garlic starts to come up I plan on putting a layer of shredded leaves on to prepare the bed for the winter.

This is the beginning of the new bed. I have a ton of these cedar fence post laying around. My local big box store had them on clearance, so I bought them all. They make good borders. I chose a location in the back left corner of the property that gets good sun and doesn't have a water problem.

I put down a couple layers of cardboard I salvaged from work. They seriously just put it in a trash dumpster and send it off to the local dump. I try to get as much as I can. I always seem to have a use for more cardboard.

Whenever I establish a new bed I typically make my own soil mix depending on what I plan on planting. In this case I used a 60 / 40 compost to peat moss mixture. The bed I put in last year for the garlic had the same mix, and the garlic did very well. It was also very easy to harvest because the peat moss makes a loose soil.

I wanted an even distribution so I gridded out the bed and then planted. I am planting a little closer than I did last year. Most instructions say to plant the cloves 4-6 inches apart. I think you can bring that down to 3 inches and still get large bulbs. But, I have not tried this before, so maybe wait until my experiment is over before you plant your garlic this close. I will let you know how it goes in next years harvest post.

Here is the planted bed before I covered the cloves. I have about 4 inches of soil in the bed. You want to plant the clove root side down at least an inch, two is better. This is probably about as shallow as you would want to plant in. If I had more soil, I would have gone another inch at least. I am not worried. The cardboard will get wet and disintegrate over the winter and the roots will be able to access the subsoil.

Here is the finished product. I mulched it with a layer of straw followed by pine needles. I will cover this with a layer of shredded leaves once the garlic gets a couple inches tall. You can probably still get away with planting garlic this year if you are in my climate zone. I planted at the end of October. If you plan on planting and have not done so, do it asap. If you are reading this in the winter sometime, you can grow garlic indoors if you have deep enough pots for proper bulb development.

I will have plenty of garlic next year so if you are anywhere near me, and want some heirloom garlic, just drop me a line next fall.

Garlic Harvest

Garlic (Allium sativum) a brief history:

Garlic has been used by humans for over 7000 years. It is native to central Asia and thought to have descended from the species Allium longicuspis. Egyptians would "pay" pyramid workers with garlic. It was believed garlic would improve the workers stamina and strength. In India, garlic was used as an aphrodisiac. I guess if everybody smells like garlic, who cares? Phoenicians and Vikings would carry large amounts of garlic on their voyages for medicinal and spiritual practices. No matter where you look, you will find garlic was used in folk medicine and rituals for centuries. During the middle ages an infusion of garlic was thought to protect from the plague. Don't forget about the vampire repellent attributes of this pungent and useful plant.

 

Garlic is such an amazing plant. If you told me I could only grow a handful of plants for the rest of my life, garlic would be number one. Aside from its many culinary uses, I grow garlic for its medicinal benefits. Garlic is antibacterial, antimicrobial, antiviral and anti-fungal. Garlic was used in ancient Assyria as a antibiotic by putting crushed garlic in rotten teeth cavities.

In a growing number of scientific studies, garlic has held up to the ancient belief that it is indeed a powerful medicinal. It has been found to reduce heart disease by significantly reducing harmful LDL cholesterol particles in the body. Garlic acts to block LDL formation in the liver while not hindering HDL cholesterol. It has also been shown to dilate blood vessels, effectively lowering blood pressure. It also prevents stroke and blood clotting by decreasing the stickiness of blood platelets. Oh and did I mention it may help reduce the size of some cancerous tumors and has been shown to prevent some types of cancer, mainly in the intestines.

I could go one and on about the medicinal benefits of garlic but I want to talk about growing it, harvesting it and using it. Some garlic you will find at your local grocery store is called elephant garlic (Allium ampeloprasum). Elephant garlic is actually a wild leek and not a true garlic. Most of the garlic you will find in the grocery store is a soft neck variety. This is mostly because they are large, have many cloves and store well.

There are two main types of garlic in cultivation today. Hard neck (Allium sativum var. ophioscorodon) and soft neck (Allium sativum var. sativum). I am growing three varieties of each. Hard neck garlic is said to do better in colder climates while soft neck prefers more southern climates. I had good luck with both types but my hard necks are visibly larger than the soft necks.

Garlic is planted in the fall here in Ohio about 6-8 weeks before the first frost, but you can plant after the first frost as well. You plant the actual clove that you would normally eat. You can let garlic go to seed. It will grow a shoot and make small cloves on the top of the plant. These seeds must go through a freeze to germinate in the spring. I prefer to use the actual cloves from the bulb you would normally eat. This in effect is a clone of the garlic you want, instead of a hybrid. You plant the clove root side down about two inches under the soil level with the pointy end up. You want a loose but very fertile soil. Planting cloves in a clay type soil will constrict the bulbs expansion in the spring. Once the tops emerge they will grow a few inches before the growth is stopped by the first strong freeze. At this point you should mulch over them with a couple of inches of straw. In the spring the growth will pick up where it left off.

Around late May to early June your hard neck varieties will start growing scapes. These are long green shoots with bulbils at the end that will eventually form the small cloves you can plant after a freeze. You want to cut these scapes off when they first form. This will tell the garlic plant to put its energy into the bulbs instead of trying to reproduce through bulbils. Scapes are absolutely delicious. Use them in stir fries or make them into a garlic pesto. 

Around early July you will start to notice some of the garlic leaves starting to turn brown. This will happen from the ground up. Once the first set of leaves have turned you should start to think about harvesting. I know you can't control the rain but you need to stop watering them if you have been and pick a dry day to harvest. Some people say to not pull them out of the ground and recommend that you dig them very carefully so you do not injure the bulb. I planted mine in a very fertile compost / peat moss soil that was pretty loose. I pulled mine up roots and all with no problem. You want to brush off as much dirt as you can. I hosed mine off gently, some people say not to, I say they are still wet from being in the ground. You want to lay them out in a well ventilated dry place out of the sun to cure for a couple weeks.

If you have grown soft neck varieties you can do a garlic braid. Its pretty easy and it looks awesome hanging in your kitchen. You want to braid them before they are done curing so the stalks are still pliable. There are many videos online detailing how to make these. It is simple. Start with three bulbs, stalks facing you. Braid one side over the middle and every time you add a new bulb make sure the new stalk goes in the middle. Braid like you would hair. When you are done braiding, use a piece of twine to tie it off and make a knotted bow on the back to hang it from.





 

Garlic should be eaten raw,  crushed and chopped, to get the most health benefits. By crushing garlic you release an enzyme called Alliinase. This enzyme reacts with the chemical Alliin which is then converted into Allicin. Allicin is an organosulfur compond that gives garlic its pungent smell. Allicin is also what gives garlic its antibacterial and anti-fungal properties. This is its natural defense mechanism against pests. 

 

 It is interesting that if you could somehow split a garlic clove without rupturing the cell walls, you would not smell the familiar garlic odor.

 I really enjoy crushed and chopped garlic in homemade balsamic vinaigrette. Here is a simple recipe that I have been using for years:

3 parts extra virgin olive oil

1 part aged balsamic vinegar

Pinch of salt

As much crushed and chopped garlic as you can handle!

Mix with a fork and pour over your favorite salad greens. This is by far my favorite salad dressing. In fact I do not eat any others. It is so simple, yet delicious and very good for your health. Please consider eating more raw garlic and growing your own while you are at it. 

We purchased our heirloom organic garlic from Botanical Interests. We have been ordering from them for years and have nothing but praise for their products.

If you want to grow garlic to harvest next year, you should be thinking about ordering your bulbs in early fall. You wont find any for sale in the spring or summer since you need to plant them in a very specific time window. I hope you try your luck at growing this easy and beneficial plant.

It's time to plant garlic

I built this new raised bed in about 45 minutes, cost $25. I used cedar fence boards from the local box store, $2.25 each. I filled it with a sphagnum peat moss and composted manure mixture.

I used hemp twine to break the bed into 6 sections. The tomato staked in the back happened to be in the area I wanted to put this bed. I would have ripped it out but it is one of two OSU blue tomatoes that are producing for me. 

I ordered a 6-pack sampler of heirloom organic hard and soft neck garlic from Botanical Interests. I really like this company, they are always fast and the seeds have great germination rates. 

Here is what came in the sampler package: 

Back left - California Early soft neck 

Back center - Silver White soft neck

Back right - Inchelium Red soft neck

Front left - Chesnok Red hard neck

Front center - Metechi hard neck

Front right - Purple Glazer hard neck

I will be braiding the soft neck varieties next summer at harvest. I can't wait to have real heirloom garlic for the kitchen. The garlic you get at the grocery store is typically bland compared to the varieties you can grow, very easily, in your own backyard.

If you are reading this mid September through mid October and are anywhere near me geographically, you still have time to get a crop in the ground for harvest next summer. Again I recommend checking out http://www.botanicalinterests.com/ if you want a great heirloom organic product.