Garlic Overview + July Farm Activity

It's blueberry harvest time. We sprinkled some organic cotton seed meal for nitrogen slow release fertilizer on the blueberries while we harvested. Was a pitifully small harvest. The bushes are still tiny and they don't really look all that great right now either. Hopefully the fertilizer will spruce things up a bit. We're about to bush hog the property then we'll have a fresh load of hay to sprinkle around all the plants as well.

Although it's pretty late into summer, we planted some sprouted zinnias. Not sure if they'll have time to bloom and go back to seed again, but hopefully so. I'm hoping to establish a nice reseeding zinnia bed. The seed packs were on sale for 10 cents so bought 15 and gave it shot.

Got 5 Kiowa blackberry plants put in the ground, tied to 2 strand trellis fence, and hooked up to 1 gph drippers ($9 per plant).

Bought 3 new types of garlic ($12 / lb):

• Georgian Fire (Porcelian hardneck). Some claim it to be among the hottest of garlics. Averages 5-8 cloves per bulb. Really looking forward to trying this one.
• Siberian (Marbled purple stripe hard-neck). Originally from fishermen trading green leafy vegetables with poor peasants who grew root crops. Averages 5-9 plump cloves per bulb. Good mild flavor. Can make a very large bulb. Siberian is reported to have the highest concentration of allicin compared to other garlic varieties (in general, hardneck garlics have 3x more allicin than softnecks)
• Inchelium Red (Artichoke softneck). Large bulbed vigorous strain with 4-5 layers of cloves (8-20 total cloves). Won top rated soft-neck in 1990 Rodale kitchen taste test. Was discovered on the Colville Indian Reservation in Inchelium, Washington. Mild lingering flavor with a tingle.  This is one we tried last year and it didn't do squat for us, but it's supposed to do well in our area and want to give it one more shot.

Other varieties we already had:

• Chesnok Red  (Purple stripe hardneck)  This one grew best for us last season of about 8 different varieties tried).  It’s said that this is one of the best cooking garlics.  It is very flavorful, having won “best baking garlic” taste tests conducted by Rodale, Sunset Magazine, Martha Stewart and others. It holds its shape and retains flavor well when cooked.  It has large easy to peel cloves.  Originally from Shvelisi, Republic of Georgia.  Averages about 8 cloves per bulb with a fairly large bulb. Can handle some neglect (boo-ya).
• Mother of Pearl (Silverskin softneck). Excellent keeping qualities. Pearly pink/purple blush in heads. Spicy for a softneck. A rare garlic. Didn't grow all that well for us in Alabama but it hung in there so we're going to keep trying with this puppy.
• Martin's Heirloom  (Rocombole). Originated from the garlic farmer, Martin (who else?). It’s been grown in Wisconsin since the early 1980’s and the original source is unknown.  It doesn't grow all that great down in Alabama but holds on. In Wisconsin it's claimed to be a huge and beautiful garlic. Averages about 10 cloves.

Other Varieties we tried but that failed entirely (bummer). 

In the garlics favor, we didn't do everything we could to help the garlic. Although we did treat the garlic before planting and did add alfalfa pellets to the soil at the time of planting (although probably not enough), we never fertilized again, we didn't do a good job of deweeding at all (and there were really weeds everywhere) and it was a very, very wet winter and spring:

• Simonetti (artichoke softneck). Bulb size is supposed to be large with good flavor. Up to 20 cloves. a standard Artichoke that is very mild, very white and very large. If you want large, mild garlics, this is one to try. It usually does well, but some years it doesn’t, especially if there is a very early, very hot spring/summer.
• Inchelium Red (see description above)
• Red Toch (artichoke softneck). Originates from Tochliavri, Republic of Georgia. Averages 7 cloves per bulb.
• Purple Glazer (purple stripe hardneck). Supposedly this one really doesn't like competition from weeds (aha, this was probably our problem). Very good flavor. Originally known as Mchadidzhvari #1 from Republic of Georgia. Averages 10 cloves per bulb.

Varieties We Want to Try

• Metechi (Marbled purple stripe). Big, strong and robust. Harvests in the middle-late part of the harvest season
• Burgundy (Creole silverskin). Deep purple, uniform cloves, delightfully mid-mild taste in a bulb that grows well and stores long. Very hardy and harvests in mid-late season. Ajo Rojo is another Creole similar to Burgundy except that its color is more red than purple and a little stronger. Creole Red is a medium Creole but has only about five cloves per bulb, but they are larger cloves.
• Music (porcelain hardneck) Good flavor, sweet & pungent, very hot raw. Italian variety brought to Canada by Al Music in 80's. Averages 5 huge cloves per bulb and very hardy.
• Romanian Red
• Georgian Crystal
• Thermadrone
• Asian Tempest
• Bogadyr
• Red Rezan

Here's a decent writeup on garlic growing in warmer climates. I have definitely noticed plants described one way up north grow COMPLETELY different here and since there's hardly any garlic farmers in the south, it's sort of a roll of the dice as to what you'll end up with.

http://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/wwinter.htm

Online Garlic Southern Growers:
Virginia (Central): http://www.southernexposure.com
Kentucky: http://www.saltrivergarlic.com
Texas: www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com
?: http://greyduckgarlic.com/Buy_Organic_Garlic.html

Harvested Gourmet Garlic

It was garlic harvest time this week. It was a warm winter and cool summer so pests and weeds were a plenty and we didn't do a great job de-weeding or fertilizing and our soil's very acidic, so we didn't really set ourselves up for success, but all in all it wasn't so bad. We harvested all the garlic varieties at once (I know you're not supposed to do that) and layed them out on screens (from old windows) to dry. The soil was wet when we dug it up (I know you're not supposed to do that either), but it's been raining cats and dogs for weeks and almost all the green leaves were brown so figured it was now or never. We had to dry the garlic indoors. Little strange having garlic drying all over the apartment. Anyhow, you dry the garlic with the stalks still in place (I think this draws the moisture out of the center of the cloves a little better). You can tell when the garlic's dry enough b/c the green in the stalk is now totally yellow and dry. Once fully dried, you cut off the stalks and roots & brush off any dirt (unless it's softneck garlic in which case you can braid it if you want). If you didn't let your garlic go too long in the soil, you should have plenty of dry skin and can pull off a layer to clean up the garlic a bit.

We started last fall with 2 lbs of Chesnok Red and a 1 lb mix of  Inchellium Red, Red Toch, Simonetti, Mother of Pearl, Purple Glazer, & Martin's Heirloom. The Chesnok Red seemed to have done the best (biggest cloves, weight increased the most, was still the greenest at harvest time).

When we planted the garlic, we put name tags in the ground but for some reason the rain washed away what we wrote (although we used Sharpies). We remembered where we planted the Martin's Heirloom, Mother of Pearl and Chesnok Red, but not the rest.

Upon digging up the garlic (carelessly) we damaged quite a few cloves. On the bright side, that meant we got to eat them! (the plan was to harvest all the garlic and replant it all to grow our supply). We gave away about a pound of it (to very helpful and kind neighbors).

Anyhow, here are the results:
--0.23 lbs Mother of Pearl
--0.09 lbs Unknown Red/Purple Garlic
--5.31 lbs Chesnok Red
--0.18 lbs Martin's Heirloom

So despite not knowing what the 0.09 lbs of unknown purple / red garlic is, it didn't do all the well anyhow considering we planted Inchellium Red, Red Toch, Simonetti, & Purple Glazer (the rest is accounted for).

Anyhow, the harvested and cut and dried garlic is all bagged up in brown paper bags being stored in a cool dry location until replanting time during the Autumnal Equinox (Sunday, Sept 22).

Homemade Cherry Pop Tart Pops

 Lifted this from this website: http://www.caplanmiller.com/blog/2011/02/28/must-have-monday-poptart-pops/

FOR THE TWO-BITE POPTARTS
1 c. fresh cherries, pitted and diced
3 T. sugar
2 T. cornstarch
2 T. water
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 pkg. prepared pie crusts

FOR THE POPS
wooden popscicle sticks

FOR THE GLAZE
1 c. powdered sugar
1-2 T. milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
food coloring and sprinkles (optional)

In a small saucepan, combine cherries, sugar, cornstarch and almond extract. Heat on stove over medium heat until mixture has thickened. Remove from heat and allow mixture to cool. Unroll pie crusts and using a pizza cutter to slice them into 1 1/2″x 2″ rectangles (I used a ruler to measure mine into equal sizes. Just use a butter knife to score your pie crust before cutting).

Place a wooden popscicle stick on top of one of the cut rectangles, then spoon a small amount (about 1 1/2 tsp.) of cooled cherry filling into the center of the pie square, taking care not to get it near the edges. Gently lay a second rectangle over the top of the cherry filling. Press the edges of the rectangles together with a fork. Transfer to a baking sheet. Bake poptart pops in an oven preheated to 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or just until the edges begin to brown.

In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla to make glaze. Tint with food coloring, if desired. Spoon over cooled poptart pops, sprinkle with colored sugar, and allow to the glaze to harden slightly before serving.

Duck vs Chicken for Egg Laying

Duck vs Chicken Egg

I've always loved chickens and ducks, even as a child. My neighbor had both and was kind enough to allow me to try and hatch an egg. It didn't pan out. We lost power and the eggy died. A few months later, mom and dad were kind enough to surprise me with 4 ducklings for Easter. I raised and released them never giving a thought to collecting their eggs for food (that's for chickens, right?....wrong!).  Funny thing is, the ducks I raised were actually bred for egg laying (the Khaki Cambell duck).

Duck vs Chicken Yolk

So what's the benefit of having a duck egg laying flock vs chicken egg laying? My first thought was surely chickens lay a lot more eggs, but nope, the some ducks bred for egg laying can produce just about as much.

Duck vs Chicken Egg Taste
Duck eggs tend to have a larger yolk and lower water content. Supposedly makes cakes and pastries fluffier. It's more difficult to make meringue with duck egg whites. The eggs tend to be firmer, in general, when cooked up. Duck eggs tend to be a fair bit larger (filling up the palm of your hand).

Duck vs Chicken Egg Shelf Life
Due to thicker shell, a duck egg has up to a 6 week shelf life vs ?? for a chicken egg.

Duck vs Chicken Egg Nutritional Difference

• duck eggs are alkaline, chicken eggs are acidic
• 6x the Vitamin D
• 2x the Vitamin A
• 2x the cholesterol
• 75% the Vitamin E
• Morere Vitamin K2
• higher in calories
• higher omega-3 fatty acids
• yolks are darker, yellower, indicating a higher nutrient density
• 100 gm of duck egg = 185 KCal of energy vs 149 KCal for chicken
• slightly  higher amounts of selenium, manganese, zinc, copper, potassium, sodium, phosphorus, calcium and iron
• slightly higher amount of thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, folate, vitamin B6, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin A, vitamin B12 and retinol.
• 100 gm of duck eggs = 3.68 gm of saturated fat vs 3.1 gm in chicken
• 50% higher monounsaturated fat
• slightly higher amino acids: threonine, isoleucine, trytophan, leucine, methionine, lysine, cystine, tyrosine, phenylalanine, valine, serine, glycine, proline, aspartic acid, histidine, alanine, and arginine. 
• 100 gm of duck eggs = 884 mg of cholesterol vs 425 mg in chicken

Good Duck Laying Breeds

• Indian Runners: Skiddish, quiet, small, don't fly, interesting upright posture, not a good meat bird, greenish white egg, don't need water to swim in 

  

  Indian Runner Duck

  
  

  

  Indian Runner Duck Bluish Green Eggs

  

  Indian Runner Ducks

  
  

  

  Indian Runner Ducklings

• Khaki Campbells: Pretty, highest egg production of any duck or chicken breed 

  

  Khaki Cambell Ducks

  
  

  

  Khaki Cambell Ducklings

• Pekin: ideal meat bird that's also pretty good egg layer 

  

  Pekin Duckling

  
  

  

  Pekin Duck

• Black Cayuga: Pretty beetle green bird lays an interesting black egg (100-150 eggs per year)

  

  Black Cayuga Duck Egg

  
  

  

  Black Cayuga Duck

  

  Black Cayuga Duckling

Make Ahead Lunches

Ok, I don't have much to write here. I just love this website though: http://easylunchboxes.smugmug.com/The-Best-Lunchbox-System/Yummy-Lunch-Ideas/10136835_YSuyb#!i=893724942&k=TzNHwQd

Practical wild edible plants in abundance locally

You frequently hear about wild edible plants, you might have even gone through the trouble of reading up on some of them. What you might have noticed is most of them are plants you've never heard of before and/or seen in the wild before.

So what i wanted to know was which plants grow abundantly in my neck of the woods? Here's my list.

• Wild Blackberries
• Mulberry
• Pecan - Nov - Dec
• Muscadine
• Wild Strawberry
• Black Walnut
• Hickory
• Wild Onion
  
• Dandelions - roots, leaves, and flower are edible. Can be harvested year round
  
• White Oak Acorns - Sep - Oct
• Cattails
• Clovers
• Dead Nettle
• Sassafras
• Daylily

Quote

"To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow" - Audrey Hepburn

Organic Garden Strawberries

For the 1st time, we planted strawberries today. Dad found a door frame somebody threw out and gave it to us to use for a raised bed. It's surprisingly attractive, even more so than the store bought raised bed frames. Upon review, almost everything on our back patio was acquired for free and it's all rather nice stuff, too.

The recommendation is 25 plants for a family of 4, so we bought 18 plants. The important varieties grown in Alabama, according to Aces.edu, are Chandler, Douglas, Albritton, Sunrise, Cardinal, Earligrow, Earlibelle, Delite, & Allstar. However, these varieties are nowhere to be found at Lowes, so we went with the following:

• 6 Sequoia - June Bearer. In mild climate, this tends to grow like an ever-bearing
• 10 Ozarks - Ever-bearing
• 2 Quinault - Ever-bearing

There are 2 general planting methods for strawberries: the matted row & the hill system.

The matted row system generally produces a larger quantity of smaller strawberries, encourages runners, and is best suited for strawberry varieties that create a lot of runners (usually june-bearing strawberries). This  method works better for home-grown strawberries where hand de-weeding is possible. This system suits itself to growing perennially as the system gets stronger each year (if it doesn't succumb to disease and pests).

The hill system generally produces fewer large strawberries, encourages the mother plant at the detriment of the runners, and is best suited for strawberry varieties that don't create many runners (usually ever-bearing types). This system responds well to a plastic mulch and is frequently used by commercial growers in Alabama who plant in fall and harvest then till under in spring. Strawberries, particularly in Alabama with it's warm and humid summers, are susceptible to disease and pest and thus might do better grown as an annual then as a perennial.

For pest control (from birds), you can paint stones like strawberries long before the berries arrive to train birds there isn't any fruit.

Organic fertilization can be accomplished with blood meal to raise nitrogen and bone meal to raise phosphorus  Applications should be made monthly between June and September.

Expected productivity for a matted row system (makes me wish I'd ordered Day-neutral):

• June-bearing: .5 - 1 lb / ft row during 2nd & 3rd year
• Ever-bearing: .25 - .5 lb / ft row during 2nd & 3rd year
• Day-neutral: .25 - .75 lb / ft row during 1st year & .5 - 1.5 lb / ft row during 2nd & 3rd year

Here's a good article on companion planting borage with strawberries.

Since we have predominantly ever-bearing varieties, we went with the hill system spacing 18" X 4' then inter-planting with a mescalin salad mix. We kept all the blooms clipped to encourage plant growth over fruit growth for the 1st year with the hopes that next year we'll have a better crop. The grassy top layer was tilled under then the remaining raised bed was filled in with 4 ft3 of Organic Miracle Grow Garden Soil and 1 bag of Velvet Magic Mushroom Compost. That filled it up perfectly. Topped it off (as a mulch) with some leaves for additional compost material. Fingers crossed we'll grow some nice, healthy, organic strawberries and baby Simon will get some truly homemade strawberry baby food!

 
5/2014 Update: The plants we purchased in pots all thrived and the ones grown as crowns from a bad almost all died (or maybe ALL of them?). Anyhow, we only bought maybe 8 plants from pot total and after clipping flowers and letting the plant run, then clipping the runners as soon as they showed roots to start a new plant, we ended up with about 100 plants by fall (there were Dixie cup strawberry plants everywhere). During fall, we took all the Dixie cup strawberry plants up to our property, laid down landscape fabric, poked holes in it, and planted all the strawberries. Turns out that landscape fabric (the kind we bought) didn't do a thing to keep weeds at bay. All it did was keep the soil moist to HELP the weeds, but it must have helped the strawberries too b/c they looked great and they made the best strawberry fruit I ever had in my life (this was the first time we'd ever even grown them before). Oddly enough, you can pick a fruit that's soft and it's not bad, it's actually the best when it's soft. You just have to eat it as soon as you pick it, is all (not a problem for me). Anyhow, it was very exciting as we've had a lot of bad luck with almost everything we've planted so far. Our soil is pretty nutrient poor and very very sandy, but the strawberries did really well. They dont' show any signs of disease yet. I'm surprised how many plants it takes to get just a little bit of fruit though. Most of the plants look pretty full of fruit, but at any given point in time they're mostly still green, so you can walk over 100 plants and end up with about 1 lbs of red juicy fruit. So far, we've gotten about 3 lbs total out of our 100 plants. Maybe we did something, but honestly they all look healthy at productive. Granted, I think something or someone else is eating some of our fruit. I did see several picked and bitten off of fruit lying around upon the last harvest.

2013 New Years Resolutions

Since I didn't post 2012's resolutions until September, I don't feel THAT  bad that I only finished about 25% and that I'm reusing the same list (almost). With that said, here's 2013's new years resolutions with some slight modifications.

PERSONAL ENRICHMENT
1. Try out one of my business ideas (or develop a new one and try it)
2. Make a farm fruits cookbook (several for each fruit type we grow).
3. Learn to sew - sewed a baby crib fitted sheet
4. Learn a new word starting with every word of the alphabet
   • Bees Knees - urban slang for awesome. That's the bees knees.
   • Chuffed - pleased with one's self. Presidential candidates are often chuffed with themselves for having proposed a solution to a problem, but typically lack substance or details on how to go about it.
   • Effeminate - marked by an unbecoming delicacy or overrefinement, having feminine qualities untypical of a man, not manly in appearance or manner.  
   • Frenetic - frenzied or frantic. I become frenetic, at times, when talking about topics important to me.
   • Nebulous - Lacking definite form, shape, or content. The Brooklyn Free School has a nebulous curriculum
   • Prodigious - Remarkably or impressively great in extent, size, or degree. D’Souza is a prodigious author of conservative tomes.
   • Revile - to criticize in an abusive or angrily insulting manner. Overspending during the current administration was reviled at the New Orleans Investment Conference. 
   • Troubadour - 11th-13th century poets in France, Spain, and Italy who composed songs of love.  
5. Take a dance class
6. Get flexible enough to lay my head and chest on legs (and maybe even do the splits, or almost)
7. Learn a new song on guitar
8. Learn a new song on the piano
9. Read 1 new non-fiction book - Read Deep Nutrition
10. Read 1 new classic 
11. Stop watching tv more than 1 day in a row
12. Brush teeth at least twice/day
13. Floss everytime I brush
14. Don't cuss ever
    
    FAMILY
15. Help daughter learn to drive a stick shift
16. Decorate nursery
17. Create a family cookbook
18. Find family history for Dad's dad
19. Sew something for baby
20. At least once per month, call an out of town family member on the phone
21. Take more photos of family
22. Have a family fun night (when not band/football season w/ practice and competition every night of week)
23. Start walking/hiking with mom and dad at least once/ 1 week
    
    FOOD
24. Encorporate fruits or veggies into breakfast every morning trying to include protein
25. Make hot breakfast at least every other day
26. Make homemade kefir
27. Try 3 new recipes by Julia Childs and/or Jacques Pepin
28. Try 3 new recipes from Cooking
29. Hunt (or at least obtain) a decent quantity of deer meat
30. Make homemade baby food
31. Make homemade pizza dough
32. Make cheese
33. Make sauerkraut
34. Try several recipes from the cookbook Mark got me for Christmas
    
    NEED TODO
35. Organize photos on computer and make sure they're all online
36. Save up and maintain 3 months salary in bank/savings account
37. Clean out closet
38. Pay off credit card
39. Backup anything important from pc to offline hard-drive
    
    FARMING
40. Start and plant asparagus seed
41. Start and plant Louisiana Iris seeds
42. Start and plant pomegranate seeds
43. Plant another variety of pecan
44. Plant another variety of fig
45. Plant 2 more varieties of plum
46. Have a stand at farmers market at least once
47. Clean up 10 more fallen trees
48. Double the size of the cutting flower bed
49. Aquire a manure source (or other cheap organic fertilizer source)
50. Prune fruit trees
51. Add fresh layer of mulch around all trees
52. Build a shed
53. Plant heirloom garlic
    
    NICE THINGS FOR OTHERS:
54. Do 3 nice things for other people, 1 for hubby
55. Be more encouraging
56. Write a letter to someone. Sent out several thank you notes plus a letter to Aunt Janice
57. Send a care package to someone
    
    OTHER
58. List 10 things that make me smile
59. Go to beach
60. Take 4 seasonal pictures of the property in the same place