Monday, July 14, 2014

Harvest Monday 14 Jul 2014

Not much from the garden this week after last week’s glut. I cut more chard and picked more peas. The chard  was used in a gratin that my wife ate without complaint, proving that a lot of cheese, butter and garlic can make anything palatable to the picky.

 

chard&peas

 

I harvested a head of what I thought was Buttercrunch only to find it was Romaine, which I didn’t know I planted. How strange, it could not have been a volunteer since I planted it. Maybe a stray seed got in the seed packet.

 

lettuce

 

This is Rossa Lunga di Tropea, actually Rossa Lunga di Boltonea since it was not actually grown in Tropea. Don’t want the EU police after me. I donated these to a neighbor gardener’s pot luck potato salad after she spilled her (one and only) diced onion all over the floor.

 

rossa_lunga

 

Daphne harvested her garlic so I thought I better check mine and decided to dig the lot of it. Below is the garlic harvest, five different types, which is now drying in the garage.Some family members are complaining about garlic fumes, but the smell should subside in a few days as they dry. I don’t think it will take the paint off the cars but it will keep the vampires at bay for awhile.

 

garlic_harvest_2014

 

The most impressive harvest was the Spanish Roja garlic, which is new to me this year. It is a rocambole type of hardneck, not a good keeper but it is supposed to have great flavor. The heads were enormous.

 

Spanish_Roja_garlic

 

Below are twin heads, from a clove I failed to separate completely. It was hard to tell with this particular garlic, so I had several cases of this. I am amazed how large the heads grew while this close together.

 

twins

 

And this was a case of planting the clove upside down. The flat basal end is supposed to be down we all know, but for some cloves it may be hard to tell.

 

upsidedown

 

This is a Viola Francese, an artichoke type of softneck. I have not grown this type before so I probably pulled these too late. They certainly did not perform well at all. This is supposed to produce large heads, and the single head I received was large,  but all the heads are about this size. And what are the bulbils forming in a blister around the stem all about? Apparently I can plant those bulbils this fall and get a single clove/bulb next year and a full head the second year. Commercial farmers use this method to increase their planting stock without having to purchase heads and risk introducing disease to their farm, and I may try it for fun.

 

viola_francese

 

Finally, a little more about commercial garlic farmers simply dropping scapes on the ground rather than collecting and selling them. According to the High Mowing catalog, to plant an acre of garlic (is that a lot for a commercial garlic farm?), you need to purchase 1,500 pounds of seed garlic per acre, which is equivalent to 60 million cloves per acre (planted 6” apart with 18” between rows). So that would be 60 million scapes to remove per acre, probably by hand, and either collect or drop on the ground. I think most will get dropped, with maybe a few going home for the farmer and his help to enjoy. Maybe they should try pick-your-own scapes.

 

To see what other gardeners are harvesting from their garden, head over to Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Monday.

16 comments:

  1. Love all those garlic varieties. I ought to grow more than one type of garlic, but I just don't anymore. I used to and had a real hard time keeping the varieties separated.

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    1. You do have to be disciplined to keep them separate or grow varieties that are distinctly different. I marked my rows this year but used a red Sharpie, the only one I could find at the time. The red ink completely faded in the sunlight! Only thing that saved me was a garden map I made last year.

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  2. Excellent garlic harvest, Dave. I ended up not planting garlic this year or last Fall, since my neighbor's bamboo invaded my garlic bed. Now that you're talking about scapes, I regret my decision. I can't believe all those scapes being discarded at garlic farms! Surely there's a market for them? -- Angie

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    1. That's unfortunate.I remember your bamboo problem. Time to have a little accidental herbicide over-spray.

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  3. I have a few garlic varieties as well & am thinking they will be ready to pull very soon - every year I grapple with the timing but I'm sure I will get it right some day. I too have some softneck garlic (Ichelium Red) that has developed those bulbs near the base of the leaves - I was always wondering what those were. That sounds like an interesting experiment.

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  4. You are so right about Daves. Takes one to know one! ;-) My Spanish Rojas were impressive this year too, but my Inchelium Reds were even better. I want to try some of the Tropea onions next year, they are so tasty and almost impossible to find, even at the farmer's market.

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    1. I tuck them in here and there so they are a bonus treat whenever you pull one. They are not sweet onions but are good in salads or grilled. And I have to find a place to put a few of the Candy onions you grow, they look so good.

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  5. Lots of lovely garlic! I didn't have the garden ready in time to plant garlic this year and seeing all these fabulous garlic harvests makes me miss fresh garlic. Maybe the garlic farmers don't know that there's a market for garlic scapes. I never knew about them until I started reading all these garden blogs.

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    1. Garlic is planted in the fall for a mid-summer harvest next year. Plenty of time to plan. The trick is what and were? I recommend buying certified seed garlic from a reputable grower so you don't introduce disease. But it's a one-time investment because you save the largest heads to use for seed garlic next year.

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  6. It is garlic digging time for sure. My Spanish Rojas did not do as well as usual but they taste so good I will keep growing them anyway. I had some twin heads and one upside down one also - must be a Dave thing!

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  7. Homegrown garlic is powerful stuff. I am hoping to get some in the ground for Autumn.We don't seem to have much choice here in relation to different garlic types, other than Elephant garlic - I don't like it, its all size not flavour, so stick with the commercial variety. Maybe in the future there will be more choice.

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    1. A lot of the garlic varieties we grow here were brought by immigrants or found by garlic hunters making trips to Eurasia. They are then given fanciful names. So it would be hard to compare ones here with what is available in the UK. You should look for a seed merchant selling certified seed garlic, you are not likely to find anything good at the grocers. Thompson & Morgan sell a few varieties. The only one I recognize is Chesnok Red from Georgia, which I also grow. It's a great garlic.

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  8. Nice haul of garlic you have there, I miss growing them, I miss the scapes very much, unfortunately garlic don't store well in our area, I ended up dehydrating them or freeze the them which is not as good as the really fresh ones.

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  9. Your wife and I feel the same way about chard. :) I've never been able to "enjoy" it. Your garlic looks great. 60 million on one acre? I think the folks at High Mowing need to check their math. That would translate to 40,000 cloves per pound!

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  10. Hi Dave, I have planted some garlic and noticed a few double shoots like you have shown above. Do you think it would be ok to pull these out gently and replant further apart? They are still in relatively early stages.
    Thanks

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    1. If you are careful, it would probably work. Seems a little early to be planting garlic, though.

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