We won't be at market Oct 10th, See us on Oct. 17th

The latest weather forecast for Saturday: A chance of snow and freezing drizzle. Patchy fog. Otherwise, cloudy, with a high near 34. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
I will be home, separating garlic for planting and planning out my plots. I hope to see you next week!

Chesnok Red

October 10th update

Here's the forecast for this Saturday: A chance of rain and snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 44. Doesn't sound pleasant, but we have a little more garlic to sell so may be there anyhow. (Check the blog on Friday)
We have quite a bit of Chesnok Red and I will be selling some miscellaneous planting stock as well. If the weather's not too bad, we'll probably sell out by noon.
We will be planting our garlic soon, which takes 3 weeks or more. See the 8/10 post for planting instructions.

Oct. 10th will be our last Saturday at market

There is still lots of Chesnok Red Garlic in our barn, enough to carry us one week longer than anticipated. On October 3rd we will have some Inchelium Red (stores til January), lots of Chesnok Red (stores til December) and a few others. We will also have some extra-big heads to sell for planting. If you want to grow large heads, start with large heads.

Garlic Available 9/12/09

• Dukanskij- A delightful hardneck, originally from Kazahkistan. Raw, its starts smooth but finishes with a bite. Sweet and pleasant when baked or roasted. Fat cloves are easy to peel. Will keep through December. GREY

• Bogatyr- Rich and spicy. A unique garlic with an excellent flavor. Try in gazpacho, salsa and for a spicy pesto. Good cooked or roasted too. Fat dark purple-brown cloves are easy to peel. Will keep to December ORANGE

• Shantung Purple- Extra-flavorful chinese softneck has 6-8 beautiful rosy/tan cloves. Cook for a strong earthy flavor, or eat raw for a fiery heat you won’t forget! Stores to January. PURPLE

• Siberian- An outstanding strain with fat, dark brown cloves that peel easily and taste very strong. Good in stir fry, soups, stews and potatoes. Will store through Dec. YELLOW

• Rose de Lautrec -French garlic from the Southern region of Tarn. Deep rose colored cloves are like little jewels, and the taste is fabulous! Good in salads, in dips and sliced thin on crackers. Will store to January. By special request, limit 5.

Also available: Chesnok Red, Inchelium Red and Shatili. German Extra Hardy is available in a Jumbo Size heads for $1.75 each. (It is not recommended for planting because of a disease problem in the plot where it grew.)

Chesnok Red is available in Extra Large heads for planting.

Garlic Available 8/29/09

• Bogatyr- Rich and spicy. A unique garlic with an excellent flavor. Try in gazpacho, salsa and for a spicy pesto. Good cooked or roasted too. Fat dark purple-brown cloves are easy to peel. Will keep to December ORANGE

• 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 YELLOW

Use Our Garlic For Planting!

Plant garlic in mid-October (earlier for high elevations.) Select largest cloves from largest bulbs.

How To Plant- Plant in good enriched soil in full sun. Separate cloves, plant each clove 2 to 2 1/2” deep, and 5” to 7” apart, with the pointy end up. Use only large cloves. Don't worry if the cloves are soft or have no skins. Mulch 2” to 4” with straw or grass clippings (no herbicides or pesticides.)

Care & Feeding- Fertilize green shoots 2-3 times in March to May with fish emulsion or other high nitrogen fertilzer. Water well in late February and throughout Spring unless we have a wet winter. Keep well-watered in May & June. For hardnecks clip central seed stalk (called scapes) when they make a loop, or shortly afterwards (usually in June.)

Harvest- Dig up when half of the leaves are brown, usually June 25- July 10. Shade immediately. Hang or put on ventilated shelves for 3 weeks to “cure”. They must have good air circulation and shade.

How To Store- Store at room temperature or cooler, out of direct sunlight. Cool basements and garages can work well for storage. The bulbs need air circulation, but storing in paper bags can keep them from drying out too much. Hardnecks generally store up to 5 months. Softnecks up to 9 months.

Garlic Available 8/1/09

These are the descriptions for the garlic we'll have Saturday 8/1. The color afterwards is for you to color-code your garlic with markers when you buy it.

• Malaysian -So mild and sweet, you can enjoy it without cooking it. Makes smooth aioli, baba ganoush, and hummus. Original seedstock from Malaysia. A very easy to peel rocambole variety. Stores through September. ORANGE

• Inchelium Red- A softneck variety that is excellent for roasting. Discovered on the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington State. One of the best-tasting softneck garlics with a mild, lingering flavor. Stores to Jan. RED

• Shatili- Excellent in, green chile & curries. Intense, spicy flavor stays strong through cooking. High in medicinal compounds. Gorgeous hardneck, originally from the Republic of Georgia. Keeps through December. BLACK

• Chesnok Red- Excellent-tasting hard neck garlic, originally from the Republic of Georgia. (Chesnok means garlic in Russian.) Earthy lingering flavor with a unique zesty bite. One of the best baking and cooking garlics. Will store through December. PINK

• German Extra Hardy- Great sliced raw, an addictive garlic taste, with full flavor. Big, easy to peel cloves. Excellent in red sauce: put in at end of heating. Loses flavor if cooked too long. Will keep through November. BLUE

• Chicago Italian- A great-tasting garlic with a spicy aftertaste when sliced raw. Perfect for dips, pesto and garlic bread (see back). Nutty and smooth when cooked. Easy to peel. Stores to October. BROWN

• Persian Star- Spicy, exotic, and very flavorful. Try on salads, in dips or in pesto. Slice thinly and serve on crackers. Originally from Uzbekistan. Will store through Dec. GREEN

• Tzan -Tangy & flavorful in sauces, with pasta and for oriental cooking. Also a good, strong raw garlic. From Shandong province. Stores to November. TURQUOISE

Wheelbarrows Full of Chesnok Red!

We will have plenty of Chesnok to sell this year. Chesnok means garlic in Russian. It's really strong and tasty, stores until December (or longer) and holds up to cooking. Use it in spaghetti sauce, pickling, roasting and sauteeing.

Harvest Is Over and the Garlic Looks Great! Look for us at the market on August 1st

WeeBee Farms will be at Boulder Farmer's Market August 1st and August 8th. We won't be there August 15th, but will be back after that.
The 1st week we'll have lots of Chesnok Red, German Extra Hardy, Inchelium Red and Tzan. Tzan is one of my new favorites for raw garlic sliced on crackers. It's very smooth with huge garlic flavor, but not hot.

June 27th:Basil plants and garlic curls. Then WeeBee Farms will be gone from the market until it's time to sell garlic.

We will be busy harvesting, sorting and cleaning the first 3 weeks of July. Check in later to see when the garlic will be ready to sell at market.
The earliest garlic (Tzan) has been harvested and looks great! The taste is slightly spicy and very rich and tasty. The rest of the garlic will be ready July 1st thru 10th. I harvest when half the leaves are brown.

Last week to buy garlic curls June 27th!

These are SO good and will keep in the fridge for 2-3 weeks. You can put a few in a pan with some oil and stir fry for a minute and serve as a side dish. Or, chop and saute to add to veggies, eggs, beans, tomato sauce, pasta, stir fries... One of my favorites is chopped raw with olive oil and avocados- yum!

Garlic curls 6/17- it's about 3 weeks until garlic harvest!

The garlic field on June 17th. Things look greener than any other year and the garlic looks fabulous!

May 30th is the day to plant warm weather plants!

Look for our hot weather plants for sale May 23rd (8am-11am), May 30th, June 6th
Basil, Tomatoes, Peppers, Cucumbers, Squash, Eggplant, Pumpkins
At WeeBee Farms we don't plant tomatoes or basil out until May 30th, and peppers until a week later. Why? We have gotten a killing frost as late as June 8th (1998). Also, those plants love hot weather and warm ground temperatures. Our nights are still pretty cool and this stresses out the plants, especially peppers which are really fussy. We always plant pepper plants in the garden in the first week of June, and have almost always had a great harvest. Peppers grow really well here! (They may need covered up a few nights in September when we get the first frosts).

Salad Greens, Salad Bowls for Sale this Saturday!

This week we'll have cool weather plants for your garden. But , the cool weather is almost over. Next week look for basil, pepper and tomato plants.

Salad Bowls (May, 2007)

We'll be at the market starting April 25th!

Stop by WeeBee Farms stand on April 25th. I'll be selling lots of cool weather plants for your garden like lettuce, swiss chard and kale. Also, I'm hoping to have some "Salad Bowl" planters ready for that day, and perhaps a few bundles of green Spring garlic.

The garlic is growing splendidly, and loving the huge snow we got.
I'm looking forward to being back in full swing at Boulder Farmers Market and I can't wait to see you there!