Eat Your Vegetables!

no politics - a celebration of food

Yesterday’s garlic harvest

We all need to fight the good fight - protect democracy and help those who don’t have a level playing field. And of course, there are the fascists who need to be vanquished.

But a happy life is a balanced one. I find growing food to be a way. Almost as important as the chats with my brilliant wife who keeps me focused on family and the natural world of birds and trees.

Oregon Giant snow peas, Royal Snap and Sugar Snaps

This could be called the mid season farm report. We have a modest plot at a nearby community garden. After the asparagus, there was “sugar snap season”. Sweet!

Peas were taller than an elephants eye. The beginnings of winter squash in the foreground.

Our early season report was a celebration of the asparagus harvest. The biggest and best I can remember. The extra rain was a factor. Which has continued in Massachusetts. Some might call it relentless. But everything is so green.

Lot’s of rain also makes for really great garlic! Below is a comparison between last years garlic and this years.

Garlic comparison (last year and this)

Our garlic is a porcelain variety called “Georgian Crystal”. I grow it because it’s flavor is relatively mild and buttery (not super spicy) and because the huge bulbs contain only 5 or 6 large cloves. Easy to peel and one per dinner is quite sufficient!

Georgian Crystal 2023

We are “garlic independent”. I save a few of the biggest cloves for replanting in late October. We’re still enjoying the 2022 crop. Here’s a growing guide if you are interested. It’s one of the easiest things to grow - if you get the timing right.

Parthenon, Eight Ball and Zephyr - pick them small or they become baseball bats!

The peas are done for the season. We’ll plant a few for a fall crop. But now it’s on to summer squash! We have always enjoyed Zephyr - zucchini summer squash hybrid. And this year another zucchini called “Eight Ball”. The striped guy is called Parthenon.

Growing food is fun and a really good form of therapy. And if there is an apocalypse, perhaps we’ll find a way to last a bit longer.

https://www.johnnyseeds.com/growers-library/vegetables/asparagus/asparagus-key-growing-information.html

http://greyduckgarlic.com/grow-georgian-crystal-garlic.html