...sometimes even a single feather is enough to fly. (Robert Maclean)

10.14.2012

fall planting garlic + shallots

Time to plant!
 
 We dipped into our garlic stash,
and took out 55 bulbs.
 
(Each year, we need to use
about 20% of our stock for planting.)
 

 I go through and look for anything that is bruised or splitting open.
I take out the bruised cloves for cooking, set those aside in the kitchen,
and start working through the rest.
 

 I love watching garlic
 shed it's skin
and open.
 



 Each bulb is like unwrapping a present.

I love to peek and see
how many cloves are inside.

Peeling a bunch of garlic skin off
sounds like wrapping paper
getting tossed aside on Christmas morning...
 

Woah, baby!!!
 
  Voluptuous, juicy cloves.
Easy to peel.
 Deeply flavorful without being too spicy or pungent.
Everything I look for in a garlic.
 

  I lie them all out in rows of 20 on a baking sheet
so I can keep track of how many.
 

 
Then I place them gently into a bucket.
 
 And I take my other bucket
filled with whispy garlic papers and stalks
to the compost. 
 
Before we got down to the business of planting,
I found this growing.
 
Sure enough, it's garlic! 
Must be one lonely little garlic
got left behind when we harvested in late July.
We'll leave it and see how it does.
 
This year I took some tomato stakes
and marked them to help keep the spacing consistent for planting.

My little lady friend doesn't like them, but I do.
She just likes to eyeball and guess and these slow her down.
 
And me oh my, she's definitely not one to be slowed down. 
 
I thought we'd do 6" for garlic, 7-8" for shallots.
But we had a little disagreement about spacing for garlic,
and I lost.

She ended up spacing them 4" apart which to me seems insanely close
since sometimes a full-grown bulb is 3" in diameter. 
 
But hey,
she says she planted them like this last year
and it worked out fine.
 

 Dibbers are really great tools.
They're wonderful for making a bunch of quick small holes.
So simple and fast if you've got nice loose soil. 
 
 
I planted a whole bed of French shallots (Gray + Shante)
while my sweetie worked on the garlic.
 
 Shallots and garlic are planted the same.
Root down, little tip up,
so easy.
 
 Then I tucked all the little savory babies into bed
for the long winter.
 
 


 Good night, garlic!
Good night, shallots!
 
See you in the spring!

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