Thursday, November 1, 2012

Garlic in the Ground

The garlic is in the ground.

 Last year, I planted some heads from the grocery store that were kicking around our garlic bin and crossed my fingers. I did not have great luck.  I'm not sure whether something ate the cloves, or whether they just weren't viable and shriveled up and died, but I don't remember harvesting any garlic.

I splurged this year and ordered $30 worth of seed garlic (1.5 lbs ) from Uprising Seeds, one of my favorite local seed providers.



The following varieties are now incubated deep in my veggie beds, doing their slow magical growing thing.

Chesnok Red:  A late season red garlic with large cloves that smells great.  Apparently it is a great for cooking and baking, and has a creamy texture.  And, I can store it for 4-6 months (like it will last that long).



Music:  This one is famous for giant yields.  It is beautiful, too, with just a hint of pink.  It is a hotter taste, and the cloves are gigantic.  Territorial Seed says it will store 9 months- one year, and that it likes the cold.




Rich's Red: Also an amazingly stunning garlic.  This one is an amazing shade of deep purple with fantastical stripes, has a reputed delicious pungency, and is a great keeper.  The best feature about it, though, is that it was developed by a farmer in the Methow Valley, Rich Brennan of Sowing Seeds Farm.  I love that Uprising Organics can tell you exactly where the garlic seed comes from (and I will think of the Methow each time I eat this delicious stuff).




Grow, little garlics, grow.  I'm going to make some time to mulch you this weekend, to ensure you keep on doing that growing thing.

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