Selling at Market- schedule and info.

 Saturday, August 8th will be our second market with garlic this year.

Garlic Bargain Bag

There will be 6 different types of garlic including Chesnok Red, Inchelium Red, Khabar, Shantung Purple, and Tzan ("Mexican Red"). There is a 5-10 bulb limit on many of these since we are just getting started and don't want to sell out in the first hour!

We'll have bargain bags, variety bags and a few jumbo garlics for eating or planting. Looking at the amount of garlic we have at this point I believe we will be at the Boulder Farmers market through September 12th or beyond. Check in here before making a special trip. 

And feel free to order from our website for pick-up at the farm or N. Boulder. weebeefarms.com

How To Plant Garlic

HOW TO PLANT GARLIC

Plant garlic in mid-October up to Thanksgiving (earlier for high elevations.) The idea is for the roots to start growing in the warm soil while not having the tops grow. However some years the tops do come up in November and the garlic does fine anyhow.

Choosing Garlic to plant- Start with locally grown garlic, adapted to our environment. Garlic from California or China or other parts of the world may not grow well here. It also may have been treated with an anti-sprouting agent. Our bulbs average 8 plantable cloves per bulb. 10 bulbs would plant 80 heads. After your first crop, keep the best garlic to replant in your garden.

Site Selection and preparation- Choose a site with full sun and good access to water. Garlic is not too finicky about soil, but it will grow larger with good amended soil. Use organic amendments and/ or cover crops to enrich the soil 3-4 weeks before planting garlic. For fertility and soil health we plant cover crops from organic seed. The last crop is tilled in a month before planting. Our plots are rotated yearly, with cover crops grown on them in between planting years.

Water your garlic!

Check your soil and if it isn't moist, it's a good time to water. If you watered deeply at planting time you could just give it a little soaking, but if not, you should water very deeply to get it through the winter. See the planting instructions October posting.

These garlics want to grow!

Every year I save some garlic to plant on Thanksgiving. The weather is usually warm and I love being outside in late November. This year I admit I planted some of my "leftover" garlic just yesterday on November 30th. I did a hot water soak for disease prevention and this sped up the root emergence. These were soaked 6 days ago and were looking ready to grow! It's ideal to have the root buds be just barely starting to show, not growing long like this at planting time, but luckily only a few had such long roots and I was able to plant them very carefully.

I dipped each clove in a special fungal powder that will help it combat the fungus "white rot" that has infected 2 of my plots, and some mycelium powder that will help the roots grow bigger and help fight off general disease. Cross your fingers that I can keep my remaining plots clean and continue to sell garlic for planting!

Garlic coming up in November

If you planted garlic in mid-October, you may have some garlic sprouts or leaves starting to show now. This happened to me last year, and has happened in other years where we have a warm Fall. "Turban" type garlics like Tzan or Shantung Purple are especially likely to come up early.
Although it is not ideal to have it coming up now, it won't affect the garlic you harvest next summer very much. Mine that came up early last year seemed to be pretty normal sized, or just a bit smaller than usual. I think the extra root growth that the garlic is developing helps compensate for the green leaves that will freeze and die back when the weather turns colder.
There isn't too much you can do about it. Just make sure your garlic doesn't dry out during this time. If you didn't do a big watering right after planting, do it in the next week. The moisture we had last weekend was nice, but the ground was very dry to start with and it will help to soak it down deep to keep it from drying out in the winter when it is often dry and windy.
Something else you may notice in the late winter is some garlic cloves showing on top of the soil, especially if you haven't mulched. This happens because of frost heaves. This, too is not something to worry about as the roots actually pull the garlic back into the ground!

Color Codes for garlic sold in October

Inchelium Red - RED This is the long-storing white softneck that is sweet and delicious.
Chesnok Red- PINK, Shantung Purple- PURPLE, Dukanskij- BROWN, Shatili- BLACK, Tzan- YELLOW
Rose du Lautrec - TURQUOISE. This one is the very longest storing and tastes fabulous. It is originally from a farmer's market in France and is one of the loveliest garlics ever with small cloves that are gorgeous pink. Although it is hard to peel (part of being long-storing) it is a great garlic to have at this time of year. Check out the previous post on Rose du Lautrec from 9/2/10.

Detailed Planting Instructions- Plant before Thanksgiving

HOW TO PLANT GARLIC

Plant garlic in mid-October up to Thanksgiving (earlier for high elevations.) The idea is for the roots to start growing in the warm soil while not having the tops grow. However some years the tops do come up in November and the garlic does fine anyhow.

Choosing Garlic to plant- Start with locally grown garlic, adapted to our environment. Garlic from California or China or other parts of the world may not grow well here. It also may have been treated with an anti-sprouting agent. Our bulbs average 8 plantable cloves per bulb. 10 bulbs would plant 80 heads. After your first crop, keep the best garlic to replant in your garden.

Site Selection and preparation- Choose a site with full sun and good access to water. Garlic is not too finicky about soil, but it will grow larger with good amended soil. Use organic amendments and/ or cover crops to enrich the soil 3-4 weeks before planting garlic. For fertility and soil health we plant cover crops from organic seed. The last crop is tilled in a month before planting. Our plots are rotated yearly, with cover crops grown on them in between planting years.

Garlic not storing as long as usual

The early harvest and hot, dry summer are taking a toll on the garlic this year. Some garlic that is usually rock-hard at this time of year is starting to feel a bit soft. We have it stored in a root cellar, covered in burlap to keep in some moisture. Even with that it looks like the garlic will dry out earlier than usual. Check your stored garlic often to check for softness. When a clove or two feels soft that usually means the bulb won't store too much longer.

What to do with soft garlic

You can pull off just the soft cloves and use those in cooking-they're still yummy, just not as crispy. To rehydrate soft cloves just put in in some hot water for a while, or microwave in water for a few seconds. You may also want to process some with olive oil and freeze in cubes or packets for later cooking. You can plant soft garlic, even if it has no skin. It will rehydrate in the soil.

Sprouting garlic

Our Turban type of garlics (Tzan, Shantung Purple, Uzbek Turban) are unusual in that they stay firm for a long time, but sprout early. You can use the sprouted garlic (with or without the green sprout) just fine, and some of the bulbs may still store for a long time with one sprouted clove. Just squeeze the bulbs once in a while to check for firmness.
How to store your garlic for the winter
I recommend a cool place such as a basement, cold closet, or garage (if it doesn't freeze in there). Room temperature works fine too- just be sure to keep it away from the heat of the stove and out of direct sunlight. Storing in a paper bag is ideal- it keeps in some moisture but the garlic can still breathe.

Can I store it in the fridge?

Although I haven't tried it myself (too much!) a few reliable sources have said it works well. Keep it in a paper bag in the vegetable bin.

Boulder Daily Camera story about garlic

                         (photo by Craig Walker, Denver Post)
this came out on September 12th
http://www.dailycamera.com/lifestyles/ci_21525284/boulder-county-farmer-explains-mysteries-garlic?IADID=Search-www.dailycamera.com-www.dailycamera.com

Denver Post Article

Thank you to all of you who saw the article in today's Denver Post and came by to visit and buy garlic! It was great to see so many of you who adore garlic as much as I do and plan to plant it in your garden this Fall.
If you missed me today, stop by next Saturday at the Boulder Farmer's Market between 8am and 2pm. http://www.boulderfarmers.org/  My stand is located in the middle section of the market on the East side. I will be selling garlic there every Saturday until it is sold out which usually happens sometime in October.

Garlic descriptions and color codes

Here are the types of garlics I am selling  Sept 1st thru Sept 8th, with the color code that goes with each garlic. Remember that the colors change slightly from week to week.

• Siberian- An outstanding strain originally grown by peasants for market. The fat, dark brown cloves peel easily and taste strong. Good in stir fry, soups, stews and potato dishes. Will store through December.  ORANGE

Garlic is up and growing

My family took a vacation in January (yay!) and came back on January 29th to see some of the garlic already an inch or more above ground. The warm mid-January weather usually does that. There have been very few winters where cold and snow has kept the garlic from popping up in late January.
The garlics that were up are the "Turban" types (Tzan, Shantung, Uzbek Turban and Thai Purple).  These garlics are always up first and they get harvested first, too, in mid-June.

Cold February kept the garlic from growing any more, and the tips are still about the same, with just a few of the other garlics barely visible. The snow helped protect the garlic for a while, but of course it got windy and dry and now the tips are a bit naked. A little mulch would have protected these tips from the harsh climate, but it's too darned windy here for us to mulch our huge garlic beds. Anyhow, I know from experience that everything will be fine, and as soon as it warms up a bit (tomorrow?) the garlic will continue to grow and the weather-beaten tips won't affect the growth. The cold nights are fine for the garlic, even with the tips above ground, although it would probably do a bit better without the extra challenges they face.

With the winds, and the warmer temps on the way we'll be planning to water all the garlic beds soon. Now is a crucial time for them to stay moist.

Garlic planting almost halfway done before Big Snow

I got almost half of my 350 lbs of garlic planted by Tuesday afternoon. Then we got 15 inches of snow! Luckily I'm used to this. There's always a blizzard or two in the middle of planting. If we get warm weather I could resume planting again as early as next week.  There have been many Thanksgiving days over the years that I have been out planting the last of my garlic, I remember 2 or 3 where it was close to 70 degrees. I don't anticipate going that long with planting this year, but I'll try to keep my schedule flexible just in case.

Last week for plant sales and garlic curlies. Watch for garlic bulbs at end of July or Early August

Come get your garlic scapes while you can. This is our last week to have them, in fact we'll be gone from the market all of July- to harvest and sort garlic and maybe squeeze in a camping trip.

To finish off your vegetable garden come get basil and squash plants and some beautiful morning glory starts and other flowers.