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| Freshly harvested naturally grown purple striped garlic laying in our garden. |
This weekend we celebrated our garlic harvest after gently lifting 29 purplish heads out of their soily home where they have been growing since last December 1st.
At that time I planted 30 purple stripe bulbs (one failed to launch) on a beautiful fall day. Harvesting was like unwrapping a present.
Now the presents are hanging in our garage for a 2 or 3 week curing. Then we will brush off soil and trim the stem and roots in preparation for storage.
We still have a couple of heads of last year's crop, so for the first time we are self-sufficient in the garlic department. Meeting even a small goal like this feels great. I don't like being dependent on any system.
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| Garlic curing in the garage. |
Something that helped stretch our supply out was trimming the scapes from our crop a few weeks ago. It is the first time we have trimmed them off, thinking we might get larger heads. This year's harvest was better than last year.
Trimming allowed us to try eating scapes for the first time, and we found that they are delicious. Next year we will trim them a bit earlier because older scapes become too fibrous to eat.
Growing garlic is the way to go. Your own garlic tastes better than imported, and it is nice to reduce your garlic footprint by 10,000 kilometres. And if the garlic boats ever stop coming, your stash will go on uninterrupted.
I love my garlic, and I love my garden. Better food - smaller footprint. Don't have to drive to the grocery store.
Best of all, being in the garden is therapeutic for me, because when I am in the garden, all I think about is the garden. The peace of mind I cultivate might be the best harvest of all.
One of the joys of following NBA for a long time is seeing the fruits of your garlic project! I love how you patiently nurtured this and became fully self sufficient in providing your garlic. What a privilege it is to be a part of this tribe and see all the wonderful things you are doing and others who comment. All of you inspire me to be a better human.
ReplyDeleteThat is my goal - to be a better human. I agree - the people that frequent this blog inspire me to do more. Together we get better.
DeleteThis is excellent. I'm keen to try to grow my own garlic so this post is very inspiring. I love being less reliant on The System. I think regardless of whatever 'little' steps we take to do this kind of thing equates to so much more collectively. Independence and any degree of self sufficiently is love in action for mother earth. Would love to hear what other NBA'rs are doing to remove themselves from complete dependence :)
ReplyDeleteDefinitely do give garlic growing a try. It is a beautiful plant which does not need much care, and the payoff is huge. My garlic self-sufficiency is a small, but significant step toward extricating myself from a system I have problems with.
DeleteI like "love in action for Mother Earth". That is exactly what it is. We should all be showing more love for The Mother of All.
I am also interested to hear how readers are becoming less dependent on our corrupted, damaging, and failing system. I will ask in a future post. Most interested to hear some responses from readers that are actively building a new system.