Posts Tagged herbs

One of Dave’s signature crops is his German hardneck garlic.  Be it labeled “hardy” or “extra hardy” or something else, it produces large, aromatic bulbs that sell well at market.

Early on, the garlic gets fresh mulch

Remember this?  Back in April, the garlic had just decided to kick into its growth spurt for the season, but it was still small enough for us to move around it easily in order to add a thick coating of grass clippings.

By June, those garlic patches stood tall and forest-like, difficult to move through.  I harvested all the scapes over a week or two, encouraging the plants to put more energy into the bulbs instead of the flower stalk (which is what the scape is, essentially).  Dave sold some of the scapes at market, but — happily! — I ended up with a large portion of them (in order to make garlic scape pesto for a flatbread I sell at market).

This past week, Dave decided to start digging up the heads of garlic in order to have more items to sell at the farmers’ markets.  The first row had a disappointing number of rotted bulbs — somehow the patch had become too waterlogged, despite being toward the top of a slope.  Still, we had plenty to clean and prep for market.

The boss shows his method of cleaning garlic -- I can do that!

This week, we dug up a few more rows, harvesting 75 pounds of bulbs.  It took close to four hours total over two days to clean all that garlic — spraying off mud, peeling back the damaged outer layers, and spraying clean any remaining blemishes — but when the sun is out, I rather enjoy pulling off my boots and socks, rolling up my pant legs, and getting wet while I work.

All clean and ready to bundle

I’ve become fairly adept, too, at bundling the garlic in groups of two or three bulbs to make up half a pound, so Dave put me to work on that, filling bins for market with fresh garlic heads.

All in all, I end the day absolutely reeking of fresh garlic juice, and my work clothes keep that aroma lingering around home.  Good thing I like it!

We’ll continue to harvest garlic over the next couple of weeks, clearing plots so that Dave can till and possibly have me plant some later crops.  The forecast for early next week is hot and sunny, so sitting and dousing the garlic and myself with water for a couple of hours sounds fine and dandy to me.

And it’s probably time to dig up garlic heads in my own gardens, too!

The big garden on June 26 -- picture perfect!

Summer is well and truly here, as seen in the explosive growth in the gardens.  I’m happy to report, though, that not all the growth comes from the weeds (though there are plenty of those!).  Care to take a look around?

Going clockwise:

Chamomile, started from seed, in its first bloom. I smell tea!

For such a girly-girl cabbage, "Frigga" is coming on strong, even with all the ruffles

Sweet sugar snap peas, begging to be picked! (Yes, I did -- and I ate them on the spot.)

The flint corn is still struggling with weeds, but I'm working on the situation

Finally getting some weeding done in the oats, too -- they're looking good!

Salsify, lentils, and rutabagas (which, believe or not, were thinned!)

The carrots have been thinned, too, to allow the roots to plump up a little more: so far, so good!

The pac choi (left) still dominates, but the golden chard is growing nicely

Celery plants have filled out, though I'm not sure what to do next -- prune a little?

The cucumbers and dill have been basking in the heat --- look at them grow!

I worked in the garden both yesterday and today for 1 1/2 to 2 hours at a time, weeding a few more rows in the grain patch.  But each day I was rewarded with fresh produce: snap peas, radishes, Hakurei turnips, pac choi, chard, dill, lettuce, and chamomile blossoms.

And just look at what we have to enjoy later!

Cabbage and brussels sprouts -- sprouting!

After some damp, chilly weather earlier in the week, we’re back to sunshine, temperatures in the 60s, and utter springtime bliss.  It’s a great time to be a farmer.

I spent two more days in the greenhouse this week, seeding flat after flat after flat… almost ad infinitum.  Almost.  We were running low on shelf space by Wednesday morning, so while I seeded a couple of flats of onions — small seeds, 5 to a cell, 48 cells on a flat, oh my achin’ neck and back — Dave built a small shelf unit that fit just right into the aisle at one end of the greenhouse, giving us room for another 13 flats.

By the time I finished my work on Wednesday, we had a total of 110 flats in the greenhouse, most of them seeded by yours truly.  Again, Dave noted, we had set a new record — the most flats this early in the season.

Now, of course, we have to wait and hope that the weather in early April will cooperate with us for planting.  A neighbor told him that the Farmer’s Almanac predicts a snowstorm for us for the first week of April, which is when we should be planting the early greens and root vegetables.  We will see what happens.

The beauty of all this work in the greenhouse is that I’m already seeing results.  When I stepped in Tuesday morning, several flats greeted me with slender pale green stems waving delicate pairs of first leaves.  Nothing quite gives you hope that spring is on the way as those first shoots.

And back at home, I’ve been enjoying a similar scene.  The sprouts shown above are the cabbage and brussels sprouts I planted late last week.  I’m also seeing some green popping out of cells of onions, chives, thyme, and wild bergamot.

Granted, I’ve lost a few seedlings already to mold, thanks to too much water retained in the flats.  And the red cipollini onions are getting leggy, so I’ve had to move them around a bit and will need to work on some reflectors this weekend.  But it’s a step in the right direction overall.

The weather is expected to remain warm and lovely this weekend, so I am hoping to get out to my gardens to spruce things up.  Why stay in?  I want to get outside and enjoy this breath of spring while I can.

This past week I spent two five-hour days working with Dave in the greenhouse, planting flat after flat of seeds.  He filled the pots while I kept going with the tweezers and seed bowl, and by the end of my shift on the second day, I had set a “new record” for his farm: 27 flats seeded in one day, bringing us up to a total of 64 flats ready to grow.

“I wouldn’t have gotten that much done on my own,” Dave commented — the verbal equivalent of a friendly slap on the back.

Turns out, it’s exhausting work sowing seeds in flats.  You might not think so, but standing all day in one place, leaning over the flat, and meticulously popping one seed into each cell can be a real pain in the back.  On the other hand, it’s very absorbing work — though you can certainly carry on conversations or sing along to the music while you work and not lose your place — and it’s satisfying to know that so many plants will grow from such simple work.

So it’s no wonder that after two days of this in the greenhouse, I was eager to get more of my own seeds started at home.

Organizing all the seeds by type and variety

In organizing my seed box this year, I took the extra step of entering all the information — variety, source, year bought/harvested, starting and planting specifications — into a spreadsheet so that I knew what I had and could tag what needed to be started early.

That extra bit of organization helped me pull those seeds needing an early start, and seeing the first flat of onions sprouting well over the past week encouraged me to try more seeds.

I pulled out more onion seeds — this year’s choice of Clear Dawn open-pollinated onions, reputedly good for storage — as well as a selection of herbs, and sowed another flat of seeds.  Later in the week, after picking up a couple more flats and more pots, I planted yet more herbs (including cumin, a new one for the spice garden) and the first brassicas (broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage).

Keeping track of what gets sown

Then I started a secondary spreadsheet, following the record-keeping style Dave had me use with his seeds: listing the date, the type and variety of seed, the source and lot number, the quantity, and which flat the seeds were planted in.  Since my first seeds were already sprouting, I added a column for the germination date (so I can compare to what the seed packet tells me) as well as columns to use later in planting.

Overboard?  Not really.  So often my enthusiasm has gotten me to plant, plant, plant — and then forget what I had planted and where.  This system should keep me on track better this year.

Of course, now that I’m more confident about starting seeds properly at home, the impulse is to start even more seeds.  At this point, I only have one flat left, and I’m running out of space by the window, so either I’ll have to stop soon — or farm out my seedlings to other places (like a flat of tomatoes and basil to my parents for safe-keeping).  Not having a greenhouse at home is starting to cramp my style!

And this also means I’ll likely need to find more room to plant more seedlings…