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Garden Gate:  Garlic garlic everywhere!!  |
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Chassen
True Blue Farmgirl
99 Posts
Chassen
Columbus
OH
USA
99 Posts |
 Posted - Jul 07 2010 : 07:44:40 AM
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Heh, with all this garlic, I guess I'm on Team Jacob lol.
I just harvested a (to me!) huge crop of garlic! I love how it smells and the joy I get from knowing EXACTLY where it came from.
But some of the heads are small. Not uneatable small (like seed starts), just small. Should I have let them grow another season by letting them go to seed or is it the garlic I have? I know I didn't plant elephant garlic, so I expected some small heads.
Joy in All Things!
Chassie
City-bound for now! Looking for my little piece of heaven... |
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natesgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
1735 Posts
angela
martinsville
indiana
USA
1735 Posts |
Posted - Jul 07 2010 : 09:21:14 AM
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I am growing garlic for the first time this year. The nursery I go to said that if the heads are small I need to beef up my ground with manure and make sure it's gettin enough water. Mine still looks really small, but it needs a few more weeks yet for when I got it in the ground. I'm also gonna let some of it go till the rainy season starts this fall and see if it will be bigger.
I am lettin a whole row of potatoes go till they die down or fall to see how big they'll get. I know that the 'experts' say you should dig them at exactly the day of maturity for the type, but my grandpa says they get bigger and starchier if you leave them till the plants die. Then they keep a whole lot better in the cellar.
Keep in mind a maturity date is for what the 'experts' think is the best taste. I prefer my own taste and my own purposes and young potaotoes don't keep well. I'm gonna see if young or old garlic keeps better. By the way, I was told the longer it grows the stonger the flavor. At least that's what grandpa says!
Farmgirl Sister #1438
God - Gardening - Family - Is anything else important? |
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Chassen
True Blue Farmgirl
99 Posts
Chassen
Columbus
OH
USA
99 Posts |
Posted - Jul 07 2010 : 09:52:33 AM
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That's what I was told on the flavor, too! Most of mine have been growing since late last spring and fall. A couple heads are substantial and I can just SMELL the flavor lol. I don't mind some "young 'uns"-some of my friends aren't as fond as I am of garlic and the smaller heads are more mild.
I haven't tried to grow potatoes-my mil and fil are growing them in their garden (their land is almost an acre, I live in the city :( ) and I can't wait to see how they turn out.
They let me plant a whole row of popcorn! That I am looking forward to so much!!
City-bound for now! Looking for my little piece of heaven... |
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Hallie
Video Sister
79 Posts
Hallie
Pullman
WA
USA
79 Posts |
Posted - Jul 07 2010 : 3:38:04 PM
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Chassie,
If you are growing hardneck garlic you might want to prune the scapes. One of the growers at my local farmers' market suggested snapping the scapes, or flower shoots, from the garlic before they bloom in the summer to help the bulbs grow larger.
I just picked a whole bunch of scapes last week and have been experimenting with pesto recipes. Now I am in love with scape pesto. I found a recipe I adore and I am about to get to work on converting the scape harvest! Delicious!
PS, I guess the softneck garlics don't grow scapes, but are great for braiding to keep any beautiful teenage vampires away. 
Hallie
Sister #1112
www.maryjanesfarm.tv |
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Chassen
True Blue Farmgirl
99 Posts
Chassen
Columbus
OH
USA
99 Posts |
Posted - Jul 07 2010 : 5:51:54 PM
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An Amish lady at a local farmers market told me the same thing, Hallie! Mine are not softneck-they have dried up nicely! We never knew you could use the scapes in cooking until the Amish lady told us-boy was my hubby mad! lol He was the one who was going out and cutting them for me. He's a huge garlic fan.
I think I'm going to amend the soil a bit and transfer the seedlings I started earlier over and let them go to seed next year and try to be more patient and let them grow a bit. Heck, I can always use the seeds to start again lol.
City-bound for now! Looking for my little piece of heaven... |
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Ms.Lilly
True Blue Farmgirl
826 Posts
Lillian
Scotts Mills
OR
USA
826 Posts |
Posted - Jul 08 2010 : 07:00:35 AM
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Hallie- I would love your garlic scapes recipe. I harvested 75 scapes last week and have either dehydrated them or froze them, but I would have loved to had made pesto. Don't know why I didn't think of that! We have cilantro pesto, basil pesto, and spinach pesto in the freezer and garlic would have been a great addition.
Lillian |
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Hallie
Video Sister
79 Posts
Hallie
Pullman
WA
USA
79 Posts |
Posted - Jul 08 2010 : 11:51:04 AM
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Lillian,
Kevin and I just finished shooting a video for Farmgirl U which should be available for sisterhood members in a few weeks where you can see exactly how that pesto turned out! 
I slightly modified the recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Food Blog and I loved it!
I used:
12-15 garlic scapes
1/2 cup finely grated parmiggiano reggiano
1/3 cup almonds, soaked/sprouted overnight and with skins removed
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and lemon juice to taste about 1/4 tsp each
I was using some HOT scapes, so I soaked them in water for about 20 minutes (a tip from Kevin, our Video Farm Boy) to turn them down a bit. Everything got blended together well. I tried a mortar and pestle, which gave a really nice consistency, as well as a food processor. I tend to think food processors aren't that much easier when you consider all the parts to clean, but the food processor made a nice (different) texture as well. I just love the way the almonds bring out the nutty qualities of the parmesan and olive oil. Mmmmm!
I don't see why the pesto wouldn't work with frozen scapes. They're going to be ground up anyway, so you probably won't lose much texture that way. What do you think?
I've still got to decide how to put away all the scapes I harvested. I envy those of you who've already stored theirs.
Happy 'Scaping!
Hallie
Sister #1112
www.maryjanesfarm.tv |
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Garden Gate: Garlic garlic everywhere!! |
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Garlic garlic everywhere!!
