Garlic Dreams to Reality

Confession: I really, really enjoy reality T.V.

Housewives, Teen Mom, Project Runway, The Kardahasian’s, whatever.

I know I might now garner a little judgement; but, I love them.  And honestly, I really couldn’t tell you why.  It’s just my thing.  

So, there.

It’s kind of a little escape, I guess.  Plus, I have always enjoyed real stories from real people.

Okay, okay. So, maybe the Kardashian’s life is pretty far from the “normal” reality people like you and me encounter.  But, there are still moments on the show that make me laugh because sometimes it sounds just like the conversations that happen with my sister, friends, or even in my own home with Adam.

In fact, this (nearly…) exact conversation happens about once a week.

PS- Kourtney is my soul sister.  And, I am still rooting for her and Scott.  (Cue more judgement… but, whatever.)

Adam and I are always approaching each other with ideas.  New projects.  Things to do around the house.  Goals for the garden and beyond.

So, when one of us approaches the other saying, “You know what I have been thinking about?”  We sigh with a laugh and brace ourselves for the (potentially) outrageous statement(s) to follow.

In the past month we have had quite a few outrageous thoughts and it all started with garlic.

Could we make the backyard a real income?  Could we create a CSA?  Convert more of the farmed land to pasture for cows and pigs?  Have farm dinners with our customers?

With the thought of garlic, could it be a good place to start?  What if we were to plant a lot of it and try to sell it.  Maybe online.  Maybe at farmer’s markets.  Maybe to restaurants.

And, instead of staying just a thought, things turned into action really fast.

Calls were made and research was done on the potential avenues to consumers as well as to a family friend of Adam’s who grows garlic on the large scale.  Within days, we were breaking down fifty pounds of garlic bulbs and putting 2500 cloves into the ground.

How we did it is actually pretty simple and I will get into it soon, but more importantly is why we did it.

Growing garlic has been a topic of conversation at our house more than once and we have done it before on a much smaller scale.

Garlic is one of the things that I am most passionate about sourcing locally and there are handful of reasons as to why but each reason stems from one problem: A majority of the garlic at a standard grocery store comes from China.

I am not a fan of this because of:

1. The fossil fuels that are used to get something that I can grow easily in my own backyard halfway around the world.
2. The time that might go by before I purchase the garlic at the store which leads to diminishing flavor.
3. Conversations that garlic from China is bleached in order to improve the white color so it is more appealing to consumers. Isn’t that ironic…
4. Not to mention, there are many sources out in the internet world saying that Chinese garlic is grown in untreated sewage. (Listen.  I totally get that anything can be posted to the internet; but, the chance that this is true is enough for me to hunt for new solutions.)

So, in true fashion, Adam and I followed our typical solution when there are things we just don’t want to accept: We decided to take things into our own hands and do it ourself.

We connected with a family friend of Adam’s that grows garlic that had plenty of seed garlic to spare. We received fifty pounds of eleven different kinds of garlic. After spending a couple evenings splitting the garlic bulbs into individual cloves we were ready to get things going.

Garlic should be planted after the first light frost in the fall so that the soil is cool.  Fall planted garlic is recommended in much of my research, but cloves can be planted as the ground begins to thaw in late winter as well.  We planted our garlic right around Halloween.

Prior to planting, we prepped the garlic bed with an organic compost and top soil mix in order to make the ground soft so that the new bulbs will be able to grow without disruption and they will be easy to pull from the earth in the summer.

We also prepped the cloves with liquid seaweed, a natural fertilizer, and rubbing alcohol so to kill any fungal disease. Below is how we prepped the cloves:

Soak cloves in 1 tablespoon of liquid seaweed (can be found on Amazon) and 1 heaping tablespoon of baking soda per gallon of water for 16 hours.

We used large coolers and were able to fit 30 pounds of garlic per cooler full of five gallons of water.

After 16 hours in the liquid seaweed bath, soak the cloves in rubbing alcohol for five minutes.

Then plant immediately.  Cloves should be poked into the ground, pointed ends up, about four inches deep.  The cloves should be placed about 6-8 eight inches apart.  We made marked 2×4’s to make this quick and easy.

Once planted, cover with organic mulch.  We used about 5 inches of straw.

We will harvest this garlic around July and will know that it is ready when the green leaves begin to turn brown.  The bulbs are delicate and need to be pulled from the ground gently.  They will cure for two weeks prior to consumption and will keep for months.

Even if we have a low yield or don’t even try to sell a bulb, it’s okay.  This was easy!

And, if we get a ton of bulbs, that’s okay too.  We eat garlic so often as I love it’s fresh, spicy flavor in everything from salad dressings, canning projects, stir fry, pasta and more.

As our wild ideas go… This one is pretty good.