This weekend Kate and Kevin, along with their friend Michelle, and Kevin and Rory’s mother Mary, planted next year’s crop of garlic. The ground was a little wet, but it felt like it was drying out a bit by the end of the day–helped by plenty of sunshine and a good breeze.
Because of the climate in Massachusetts, garlic is planted in the fall, overwinters in the ground and then sprouts in the spring. Kevin’s going to mulch the garlic thickly with straw later this week to help insulate it this winter and prevent weeds next spring and summer.
For the bulk of the crop we bought a little over 5o lbs of organic hardneck seed garlic from Still Point Community Farm in Amenia, NY, right on the Connecticut border. We chose a variety called Music, which is known for its excellent, slightly spicy flavor and its big, easy-to-peel cloves. It’s a good keeper and is considered a specialty garlic.
We’re also planting a much smaller quantity of a softneck garlic called Silver Rose. Softneck varieties are good for making garlic braids.
That 50 lbs of hardneck should turn into thousands of fat heads of garlic when we harvest it next summer. Then we’ll cure it in the sun or in the greenhouse for about 6 weeks. After we’ll clean it up a bit, knocking the dirt off and trimming the roots, it will be ready to go into CSA baskets and out to our farmers markets. We’ll hopefully be able to save plenty for planting again next fall.
mmm music garlic! this is so exciting. i wish i could taste it!
An auspicious start, especially in front of such a beautiful maple tree. Best of luck!
Woohoo! Let the wild rumpus start!
I told Bill I wanted to move there. He said no. maybe he’ll change his mind now with the garlic. He adores it.
The photos are beautiful. My mouth is watering.
Don;t you think the farm needs a beautiful Hanoverian?
Their climber was so skilled it made taking down the diseased tree look easy. We have had some real winners?!?!?