divaqs's Blog
divaqs's posts about: harvest
Jun 4, 2007 | 10:22 AM PST
Tags: softneck garlic , harvest , chinese pink , Allium sativum
This weekend I harvested my garlic.
For about 3 years now I have been growing Chinese pink garlic, described by the seed company I got it from, territorial-seed.com, as:
“Very early season. Garlic lovers rejoice! When fall planted, this extra-early-maturing variety will put fresh garlic back into your favorite recipes a whopping 4 to 6 weeks ahead of almost all others. You will be harvesting Chinese Pink late May to early June. All your garlic-loving friends will be green with envy. This fine quality softneck has 9-15 large cloves arranged in two layers, which makes most of the cloves of usable size. It has white outer skins, pinkish-purple inner skins, and pink clove wrappers; stores for 4-5 months. Chinese Pink has a nice mellow flavor that everyone can enjoy.”
I knew it was time to harvest since the bulbs had reached full size and the leaves were starting to brown and lay down. You know the bulbs have reached their full size when the shape of the cloves begin to bulge through the bulb wrapper. If I waited longer, the bulbs wouldn’t have gotten any bigger, but might have split or cured wrong. If you wait until all the leaves have turned brown and died, then that is too long.
I like growing very early garlic, since it leaves me a lot of growing season for other plants.
Like in previous years, I am planning on keeping the garlic in a dry, cool, shaded, and well ventilated location for a couple of weeks, so the bulbs can properly cure. I then will remove the stems and store them in a open container in the cupboard. One year we kept some in a sealed ziplock bag and they quickly degraded, so I know now to keep them ventilated for storage.
I am also planning to set aside the biggest cloves for re-planting in the fall, in about October, like I've been doing for the last few years. My belief is that by selecting the best cloves each year and re-planting them, I will continue to improve my garlic from year to year via natural selection, so with time it will be better suited for my particular micro-climate. I do this with some of my other garden plants as well, which is why I try to get open pollinated or heirloom seed whenever I can.
This year, since I have so much garlic, I am thinking about further drying some and powdering them for garlic powder. I’ve found garlic powder to be an easy way to use garlic on things like homemade garlic bread, and have always wanted to try making some of my own.
May 29, 2007 | 8:45 AM PST
Tags: harvest , plums , currants , peaches
It is spring in the northern hemisphere. All over my yard I see fruit and berries forming, making this the time of great anticipation for the harvest I hope for. This is an exciting time as I gauge the fruit of my labors and the ongoing growth of things I planted in prior years.
Like these red currants, that will soon be turning red and getting their sweet and sour taste that we enjoy by the handfuls.
In our society we sometimes get caught up in the “I want it now” mentality, which I am by no means immune to. When it comes to gardening and orchards, you are required to plan ahead, sometimes years or decades ahead. So, through my edible landscaping and gardening I feel I have better learned patience and come to value the investment of time and work on a wanted harvest. Fruit trees in particular are an act of patience. When I purchased my first peach tree about 4 years ago, it produced nothing the first couple of years. Then 2 years ago it produced 3 peaches, last year it produced 4 peaches, and this year it looks like it has about 20 peaches on it.
Sometimes things take so long to produce that you don’t get to fully enjoy the fruit of your labors. In the U.S. it often seems like people move every few years with the changing of school, jobs, or other life changes. Time after time as a kid and even as an adult my family has left behind fruit trees we planted, which we had planted with such anticipation of enjoying the fruit, only to leave it behind before seeing that really happen. I was fortunate when moving in to my home to already have something of a young orchard established, so I was able to benefit by previous owners planning, work, and anticipation.
Like with this European Prune plum tree, which was here when I moved in, has been loaded with hundreds of plums that have been eagerly looked forward to being ripe by my kids each year.
Or like this below picture of some Mirabella plums that I am expecting will soon redden up into juicy sweet fruits that will be really delicious.
Another established tree that I love and am anticipating fruit from is my cherry tree.
I don’t ever want to again uproot my family and leave these gifts behind. The story I tell my kids, and I am sticking to, is that the only thing that could get me to leave my home and the bounty of all this wonderful harvest is if God told me to leave it. Otherwise, I will happily live the rest of my days in my home surrounded by the joys of the harvest of the things I patiently cared for and tended, with my door open to those I love. In my quirky way, I summarize this to my kids as being that I am never planning on moving and someday they can bury me under the cherry tree.
