Garlic planting in December? Water!!! And photographs from WeeBee Farms at Harlequin's market

First of all - we have had a very warm dry month and in spite of the skiff of snow yesterday the soil is very dry, so if you can, give your garlic a good soaking! We soaked our main field last week. Yesterday I planted one last little section of garlic with some of the smaller cloves left over from the main planting. Normally Dec 1st is the "deadline" but not this year.

Also I have made some interesting things with photos from the farm that are for sale at Harlequin's Gardens Holiday Gift Market.
Come by and see!

http://mailchi.mp/harlequinsgardens/harlequins-gardens-2669657?e=2aa83445e7

I have trivets with photos, notecards, mini-journals and bookmarks on display. Look in the back "bee area" for the notecards and journals. Harlequin's has a BEAUTIFUL selection of gifts!!!! They are open til the 24th....

Winter Market on Saturday and Sunday! Farm photos of bees, garlic, flowers and more!

Come visit the Winter Market! I will be there for the first time with photos from the farm, gift items big and small, holiday cards and even a little bit of garlic!

Thanksgiving Day was garlic planting day at WeeBee Farms. Winter Market next Saturday!

Plant garlic, make pie, plant garlic, eat Thanksgiving dinner. That's how the day was here! Gratitude for garlic, good weather, good food and good friends and family!

It's not unusual for us to plant a little garlic on Thanksgiving, usually it's the last day of planting. This year our main garlic field was too wet in early November to till and plant because of our last 2 snows. Luckily with the warm weather it looks like we'll be done by the "deadline" of December 1st.
Winter Market
I've been busy making photo prints and doing work for the Winter Market for WeeBee Farms Art & Photography. Come visit Dec 2nd and 3rd! I will have lots of gift ideas and maybe even a little garlic! Stay tuned...

Garlic at the Longmont Market Nov 4th!

After sorting out the last of our garlic, it looks like we have enough to bring to one more market.

We will have Persian Star garlic regular sized bulbs, Chesnok Red extra-large bulbs, some variety bags (5 varieties), some planting garlic with instructions (it's not too late!) and a few other selections.
Come stop by the Longmont market between 8-1 this Saturday.

See you there!
Karen

Almost sold out!

October 28th will be our last Boulder Market for the year!
We will have several types of large garlic bulbs, for eating or planting. Choose from pre-made bags or individual bulbs.
Also we have some regular and medium sized bulbs for sale individually and in $10 bags or variety bags. Longer-storing garlic is available and some to eat within the month.
Dress warm and come on by!

Last markets with garlic!

Amethyst garlic - photo by WeeBee Farms

We are starting to sell out of garlic. We will be at the Boulder Farmers market October 21st and 28th and the 28th will probably be our last market.

Winter Market December 2-3!
Come visit our art/photography booth at the indoor Winter Market December 2nd & 3rd at Boulder County Fairgrounds!

Time to Stock up on garlic! We'll have LOTS to choose from on Saturday

Come by this Saturday at the Boulder Farmer's Market!
Get a FREE bulb of German Extra Hardy (Karen's Favorite) with any purchase when you mention seeing our social media post!
We have lots of varieties of garlic from mild to super strong, the tastiest short-storing garlic to long storing types and some bargains to boot!
We are running low on Chesnok Red and Inchelium Red, but have lots of other choices for fresh eating, planting garlic and long-storing garlic

Chesnok Red in the bin

bulk bargain bags

Karen at market

the prettiest garlic

lots of yummy types of garlic

Super-strong Siberian garlic

Boulder and Longmont tomorrow

We'll be at both Boulder and Longmont Farmer's Markets so stop by either location. This will probably be the last chance to buy garlic at the Longmont market. At Boulder we will likely be bringing garlic until the end of October.

Karen with freshly harvested garlic in July

Longmont Market photo and Westword publicity

Garlic at Longmont Farmers Market. by Linnea Covington

Longmont market was a success last Saturday, and we will be there again this Saturday. Westword writer Linnea Covington was there buying food and took this photo of our display. Here is a link to her piece
http://www.westword.com/slideshow/farmers-market-finds-discovering-longmonts-dirt-candy-9493515/36

Karen at the Boulder Market, photo by Louis Krupp

It was nice and cool at the Boulder market and although crowds were thin at the market in general it was very busy at our stand with so many people suddenly in the mood to cook! Bring your umbrella for this coming Saturday and enjoy the change of weather...

See us in Boulder or Longmont this Saturday, Sept 16th

In Boulder we'll be at our usual spot near the food court. Or come see us in Longmont and say hi to Georgia from WeeBee Farms! We look forward to seeing you and the cooler weather they are forecasting for the weekend.

See you at market tomorrow, July 29th!

Our first market with garlic this season!
We will be at Boulder Farmer's Market with 8 kinds of garlic for sale. The crop was great this year and we have lots of the early season garlic- the kind you can eat fresh on crackers, with pesto, hummus and guacamole. We'll  bring some good cooking garlic too! Come by and say hi. Light rain is predicted after noon so don't forget your raingear...

       We'll have German Extra Hardy, Persian Star, Uzbek Turban, Tzan, Shantung Purple, Metro Porcelain, Chesnok Red and Inchelium Red for sale. With a few other kinds in bargain bags and variety bags.

garlic drying on racks

The garlic harvest is finished! Stay tuned for our first market sales day.

It was a bumper crop this year! The garlic had no major problems and looks great! There is a LOT of it!! The harvest started early and was reasonably easy. Now all the garlic is drying in our barns, shops and 2 boxcars. After 3 weeks of "curing" it is full flavored, will store well and is ready to eat and sell. We will be selling Tzan, Persian Star, German Extra Hardy, and "Metro" at our first market which will probably be July 29th in Boulder.
We will sell at the Longmont Market too, on September 16th and 23rd.

Garlic Update- Harvest has begun!

The early "Turban" garlics were harvested 6/15, and now we are starting into the main harvest about a week earlier than usual. Some of the Turbans were small or had only formed "rounds" (no cloves) due to cold-stress in the Spring. But many were decent size.

"Shantung" garlic harvested 6/15

Notice the bottom leaves have fallen off. All in all half the leaves were brown and the stems were starting to fall over on this semi-hardneck type.


Today we harvested the German Extra Hardy with the bottom 4-5 leaves having turned brown (out of 9 leaves total). It looks great!! The Inchelium Red will be harvested next.

One of our two fields on June 15

Garlic Scapes For Sale!!!

Scapes ("Garlic Curlies") will be at market at WeeBee Farms June 17th and June 24th

How to use cooked: Put in your eggs, beans, potatoes, pasta, soup, stir fry, burrito.  Sautee for a minute, add salt and serve as your pasta topping. You may want to cut off the bottom part if it is tough, and the tip. You can use the flower part in your food if you like. They are great grilled whole too!
How to use raw: Slice thinly and add to a green salad, potato salad, hummous, tabouli, tuna salad, dips.
Make pesto (puree with olive oil and salt) and spread on bread, sandwiches, pizza crust.
For more ideas go to http://www.dailycamera.com/garlic-scapes
Scapes will store for 2 months in the fridge in a plastic bag!!
We will have generous bags for $1.50 (or $1.25 if you bring your own bag). 
We'll also have some cucumber and squash plants, flower starts and a few other plants for your garden. 
If you grow your own- Here's how to harvest Your Scapes- (Hardnecks only) Clip or break the central seed stalk when they make a loop, or shortly afterwards (usually in June.) Taking the scapes off will give you larger bulbs. (However your bulbs will store longer if you keep the scape on.) Eat the scapes! Harvest time comes about 3 weeks after scapes. Stay tuned for a post on when to harvest garlic (or search posts from previous years)

Scapes of all shapes!

A graceful scape...

Creekfest report

Buy your Pepper Plants on June 3rd!

Peppers for sale May 27th- Lots more on June 3rd. With cool temperatures we recommend waiting one more week!

Sweet Peppers • Hot Peppers!

It's finally getting close to time to plant peppers!  We will plant ours around June 10th (they can often go in a bit earlier in Boulder). They do NOT like cool ground temperatures! (The peppers just don't thrive or produce well if planted too early.) We have gotten a good crop of peppers every year for the last 22 years with the late planting strategy. Some will have to be covered when we get the first frost in September or October. Most of the green ones will turn red by September, some in August.

Hot Peppers! • Sweet Peppers 

 We have many kinds of hot and sweet peppers including our very favorites that grow well at WeeBee Farms.  For hot peppers we are growing Early Jalapeno, Anaheim, Serrano, Bulgarian Carrot chile, Santaka hot Asian. Fatalii and Shishitos are available too- see below. The Sweet Italians are our favorites and we have Oranos, Belcanto and Jimmy Nardello. Also look for Lunchbox mini sweet peppers . These are all varieties that we have grown here and have produced well for us. 

(http://www.highmowingseeds.com/organic-non-gmo-seeds-Shishito-Pepper.html)

                                        Fatalii Pepper is Fiery Hot-

Fatalii pepper

Fatalii is a type of habanero, but matures a bit earlier. (Habaneros usually don't grow well here since the season isn't long enough) http://sustainableseedco.com/heirloom-vegetable-seeds/pe-t/pepper-heirloom-seeds/hot-peppers/fatalii-pepper-seeds.html

Belcanto Sweet Italian- A favorite sweet pepper in our gardens for 5 years.  In our search for good organic pepper seeds we found this one that turned out to be amazing. These huge red Italian peppers taste SO sweet, and the plants are really productive! We got lots of these last year and used them for salads, stir-frying, stuffing and eating fresh off the vine. These are definitely worth growing. The Oranos is the orange version of the same pepper. It's just as good and gorgeous in salads. (The Belcanto are almost identical to the "Atris" pepper we sold in the past.)

Belcanto Sweet Italian

The only ones we could not find organic seeds for are the Serrano, Santaka Hot Asian and Bulgarian Carrot Chiles. The rest are grown from Certified Organic seed.

Saturday May 6th- come get your garden started!

Look for our Pollinator friendly flowers! Sunflowers, licorice "mint",  poppies, hummingbird mixes and Honey bee mixes and colorful dwarf jewel and "fiesta" nasturtiums. As beekeepers we make sure that all of the flowers are 100% safe for pollinators. From organic seed, soil mix, compost.
For your veggie garden: Broccolini, greens, lettuces, kale bok choy, mustard greens, arugula, cilantro, swiss chard and Salad Bowl planters!
Tomatoes and Basil Next week through June 1st is the right time to plant basil and tomatoes. We will have super -healthy plants at the right time for planting. All from Organic seed. See descriptions listed under "Pages" at the top left of this page.
Peppers! We will have lots in 2 weeks. Plant June 1 thru June 10th. 95% from organic seed.

Spring Plants for Sale starting April 15th!

The cold weather plants will be for sale soon! Come see us for your garden plants on Saturday April 15th.

We will have a palate of colorful and Colorado-friendly lettuces, several kinds of our favorite kales, arugula, purple mizuna (tasty and colorful mustard greens) for salads, broccoli, parsley, baby carrots and a lot more.

Everything will be fully hardened off and ready for the outdoors and has been tested in WeeBee Farms' gardens for 20 years.

April snow and cold spells can seem harsh to us, but these cool-weather plants like it far better than the hot May weather that usually follows!!

Salad bowl planters are a good way to get a jump on the season and eat fresh salad greens a month earlier.
Later we'll be offering hot weather plants- but don't jump the gun- June 1st is the best day to plant tomato plants outside. We do it every year and have never failed to get a bountiful crop!

Time to water your garlic!

The garlic came up in the first week of February- pretty much right on time! We have been watering the garlic in the past few days using a sprinkler for about 3 hours per "station". This is the time to take off mulch if you haven't already. You can take it off little by little if it is a deep mulch. We don't mulch anymore and the garlic seems to do fine without it. Let's hope that some snow cover and some more seasonal temperatures are coming soon!

Over the years I have taken a lot of photos around the farm and around Boulder County. Some bees, hummingbird moths and other creatures and a lot of scenery.
My friend Eva Maier from Cedar Art Studios has invited me to exhibit some photos at her Studio on First Friday February 3rd.

Come visit me at my very first art exhibit! I am working on a photo art blog, and it is very rudimentary so far, but take a look if you'd like. Here's a link: 

WeeBeeFarmsArt.Blogspot.com