Tag Archives: garlic

Garlic ‘seed’ saving

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Possibly our only successful ‘seed’ saving this year, I’m spending tonight splitting some of our harvested garlic bulbs so that I can plant the cloves tomorrow for next year’s harvest. We had good intentions of saving other seeds, but limited time and prioritization means that it hasn’t happened yet. So many things to do! It’s a juggling and learning act, this whole ‘grow your own while working and socializing and accomplishing everything else you want to in life’. 

Despite not fulfilling most of our good seed saving intentions, it’s satisfying to look back at one of our earliest blog posts from last year, ‘Garlic! (and more fall planting)’ and know that exactly 13 months later, we’re planting garlic again – not from the nursery, but from our own harvest surplus. We’re getting a few things right :)

Importing farm help from Ontario

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My friend Sandi from Ottawa came and visited the farm for a couple days this past weekend. Sandi is Dutch and grew up on a dairy farm (that I had the GREAT pleasure of visiting a couple years ago) in Southern Ontario. Knowing this, we didn’t skip a beat and put her and her hard work ethic to good use right away! After joining us for her first ever P90X plyometrics session (which she totally rocked), she powered away at the weeds that have been trying to take over our raspberry patch and adjoining ditch (to the extreme delight of Chris who usually tackles them on his own).

After weeding and digging and bending and carrying all afternoon, she helped me sort some freshly pulled garlic bulbs and garlic scapes and deliver them to the rest of the farm members. Julie cooked up a delicious dinner for us, complete with ice cold, home brewed beer from our good friend Darian (with a particularly amusing amount of foam ;).

Thanks for visiting and for getting sweaty and dirty alongside the rest of us Sandi! Come back again soon!

Photos: an afternoon in the garlic patch

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Chris, Jules, Kai and I spent some time hanging out in the garlic patch this week. We weeded a bit, checked out the progress of our peas and beans and pulled up some garlic bulbs to see how they were doing. We’re going to leave the rest of the garlic in for a bit longer, in the hopes that the bulbs will get bigger, but things are looking great and we’re excited to start eating some of our own food. I’m thinking it’s time for some roasted garlic and pesto made from the scapes!