Lifted my garlic today

[Cindy Hamilton]

I lifted my garlic today. I'm not exactly sure how much I got. Maybe
I'll weigh them once they're cured. The heads are disappointingly small,
probably because of the drought. Watering is never as good as rain.


I put three heads in the kitchen for immediate use. Maybe we'll have
a Caesar-ish salad soon.

--
Cindy Hamilton

[Dave Smith]

On 2023-07-04 10:18 a.m., Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> I lifted my garlic today. I'm not exactly sure how much I got. Maybe
> I'll weigh them once they're cured. The heads are disappointingly small,
> probably because of the drought. Watering is never as good as rain.
>

Drought? We had a few weeks of little or no rain, but we more than mad
up for it over the last few days. It rained most Friday and then
Saturday morning. It rained most of Saturday night and we had pouring
rain Sunday morning. We woke up to pouring rain on Monday morning. The
streams through my back yard overflowed and my neighbours had a small
lake in their back yard.

On Saturday it cleared up enough for my friend and I to go on a
motorcycle ride to Niagara Falls. More accurately, it was to Chippewa,
just south of the falls. Heading back we saw dark clouds to the west and
figured we were going to get drenched. It turned out to be a light
drizzle so we hardly got wet. When we got back to our town the rain let
up and as I got closer to home the roads were bone dry, as if it had not
rained at all. I parked the bike in the shed and as I stepped out and
closed the door there was a loud roar of thunder. I walked into the
house and within a minute there was a deluge.

I had waved to my neighbour two doors down as I passed. A few minutes
after the downpour started he texted me about my great timing and
wondered if I made it to the house before the rain.

>
> I put three heads in the kitchen for immediate use. Maybe we'll have
> a Caesar-ish salad soon.

I should dig up some of mine. I had planted it there a few years ago
primarily to repel Japanese beetles. That may or may not have worked.
There are almost none this year but I cannot be sure of the role of the
garlic compared to other factors like birds and one really cold winter.

[Cindy Hamilton]

On 2023-07-04, Dave Smith <adavid...@sympatico.ca> wrote:
> On 2023-07-04 10:18 a.m., Cindy Hamilton wrote:
>> I lifted my garlic today. I'm not exactly sure how much I got. Maybe
>> I'll weigh them once they're cured. The heads are disappointingly small,
>> probably because of the drought. Watering is never as good as rain.
>>
> Drought? We had a few weeks of little or no rain, but we more than mad
> up for it over the last few days.

During the period when the garlic was forming heads, we had no rain.
The last few days haven't made a dent in the soil; there are still
substantial cracks in the clay.

--
Cindy Hamilton

[Bering Sea Bar & Brig@MarthaStewart.GoodThing]

My local squirrel has returned, looking for last year's buried stash. The oak tree sprouted few acorns last year so it only got my popcorn remains to bury. Gotta reinforce the Tomatoe fencing from nibbling.

[songbird]

Cindy Hamilton wrote:
...

> During the period when the garlic was forming heads, we had no rain.
> The last few days haven't made a dent in the soil; there are still
> substantial cracks in the clay.

i've been watering all along since we too had very little
rain (maybe a half inch total) between Apr 5 and last week.
this past week we've had about 2 inches of rain which is
much better and the gardens are humming along.

i don't lift the garlic here for another few weeks or
perhaps even a month. it's been slow this year, the
scapes are still green. we'll see...


songbird

[Cindy Hamilton]

On 2023-07-04, songbird <song...@anthive.com> wrote:
> Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> ...
>> During the period when the garlic was forming heads, we had no rain.
>> The last few days haven't made a dent in the soil; there are still
>> substantial cracks in the clay.
>
> i've been watering all along since we too had very little
> rain (maybe a half inch total) between Apr 5 and last week.

I've been watering, but it isn't the same. The surrounding soil
sucks the water away. There's just no keeping up with it, unless
I want to spend $1000/month on my water bill. I could buy a lot
of garlic for that kind of money.

> this past week we've had about 2 inches of rain which is
> much better and the gardens are humming along.
>
> i don't lift the garlic here for another few weeks or
> perhaps even a month. it's been slow this year, the
> scapes are still green. we'll see...

The leaves are starting to die back. If the plant isn't
photosynthesizing, the bulbs aren't getting any bigger.

I usually cut the scapes off as soon as I see them, but I've
had a very busy spring and just didn't. They came off today
before I set the garlic to cure, so they wouldn't drain the
life out of the bulbs.

--
Cindy Hamilton

[Bering Sea Bar & Brig@MarthaStewart.GoodThing]

Chicago got nights in the 40s in early June, which didn't help.

[songbird]

Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> On 2023-07-04, songbird <song...@anthive.com> wrote:
>> Cindy Hamilton wrote:
>> ...
>>> During the period when the garlic was forming heads, we had no rain.
>>> The last few days haven't made a dent in the soil; there are still
>>> substantial cracks in the clay.
>>
>> i've been watering all along since we too had very little
>> rain (maybe a half inch total) between Apr 5 and last week.
>
> I've been watering, but it isn't the same. The surrounding soil
> sucks the water away. There's just no keeping up with it, unless
> I want to spend $1000/month on my water bill. I could buy a lot
> of garlic for that kind of money.

i thought you mentioned you had a lot of clay?
that's quite a bit of exaggeration...

>> this past week we've had about 2 inches of rain which is
>> much better and the gardens are humming along.
>>
>> i don't lift the garlic here for another few weeks or
>> perhaps even a month. it's been slow this year, the
>> scapes are still green. we'll see...
>
> The leaves are starting to die back. If the plant isn't
> photosynthesizing, the bulbs aren't getting any bigger.

starting to die back is not completely brown, garlic
can be pulled early or later than peak time for a
variety. you can tell peak time by how the tunic of
the bulb looks when you lift it. if it is cracked
open and exposing the cloves to the soil then it is
too late. if it is still fairly moist and flexible
it's too early. usually i can judge when to pull
mine by when half the leaves have gone brown. i only
grow the one type so i don't have to guess about
when.

pulling early means the bulbs will be slightly
smaller and it will take more time to cure before
the garlic can be put into storage.

any green is still photosynthesizing but once
pulled there's nothing more coming from the roots
so will the plant send moisture from the cloves in
the bulb to the leaves? i don't think so if you
look at it once the roots are dry there's not too
much going on between the leaves and the cloves or
vice versa. as some evidence for that i don't see
shrinkage of the cloves as the leaves are drying
down and turning completely brown. i also don't
see expansion because i don't leave the garlic in
the sun while it cures and the only way it would
be expanding would be if the leaves were sending
energy to the cloves, but without roots and water
in the plumbing i don't think much of that would
happen.

the garlic i grow is a hardneck garlic so there
is no weaving of leaves to get a braid of garlic
to hang. i don't mind if they turn brown and fall
off, eventually when they are dried i will remove
any of the dried leaves and trim the stem of the
stalk off so it will store more easily.

> I usually cut the scapes off as soon as I see them, but I've
> had a very busy spring and just didn't. They came off today
> before I set the garlic to cure, so they wouldn't drain the
> life out of the bulbs.

after garlic is lifted the scapes will not drain
the life out of a bulb. once the stem is dry nothing
much is going in or out of the bulb or the scapes via
that route. some evaporation happens and that would
be normal but i don't think it is significant enough
to worry about.

the most important things about growing large bulbs
of garlic are starting with the largest cloves, having
decent soil, enough room between plants with no weed
competition, full sun (and thus also how long they are
left to grow) and regular watering. trimming off the
scapes does very little overall to bulb size (compare
the mass of the bulb vs. the mass of the scapes - a mm
per clove? perhaps... by lifting early you may be
making more of a dent in the size than what would be
contributed by trimming the scapes). the size of the
bulbs will also be influenced by what variety it is.

this is all written from my experience and not based
upon any super precise scientific studies other than
what i've observed through the years and working with
the same variety of garlic for most of those. the
factors i listed above all are significant and any one
of them may limit the bulb size.


songbird

[Cindy Hamilton]

On 2023-07-04, songbird <song...@anthive.com> wrote:
> Cindy Hamilton wrote:
>> On 2023-07-04, songbird <song...@anthive.com> wrote:
>>> Cindy Hamilton wrote:
>>> ...
>>>> During the period when the garlic was forming heads, we had no rain.
>>>> The last few days haven't made a dent in the soil; there are still
>>>> substantial cracks in the clay.
>>>
>>> i've been watering all along since we too had very little
>>> rain (maybe a half inch total) between Apr 5 and last week.
>>
>> I've been watering, but it isn't the same. The surrounding soil
>> sucks the water away. There's just no keeping up with it, unless
>> I want to spend $1000/month on my water bill. I could buy a lot
>> of garlic for that kind of money.
>
> i thought you mentioned you had a lot of clay?
> that's quite a bit of exaggeration...

Two inches of topsoil over 12 feet of clay. Thanks, glaciers.
The entire yard is as hard as cured concrete, except where I've
dug the garlic bed and amended the soil. That's more like a beach.

I'm not motivated to dig down and find out how far down the
dry clay goes; that's probably what's eating the water.

>>> this past week we've had about 2 inches of rain which is
>>> much better and the gardens are humming along.
>>>
>>> i don't lift the garlic here for another few weeks or
>>> perhaps even a month. it's been slow this year, the
>>> scapes are still green. we'll see...
>>
>> The leaves are starting to die back. If the plant isn't
>> photosynthesizing, the bulbs aren't getting any bigger.
>
> starting to die back is not completely brown, garlic
> can be pulled early or later than peak time for a
> variety. you can tell peak time by how the tunic of
> the bulb looks when you lift it. if it is cracked
> open and exposing the cloves to the soil then it is
> too late. if it is still fairly moist and flexible
> it's too early. usually i can judge when to pull
> mine by when half the leaves have gone brown. i only
> grow the one type so i don't have to guess about
> when.
>
> pulling early means the bulbs will be slightly
> smaller and it will take more time to cure before
> the garlic can be put into storage.

About half (or more) of the leaves were brown. The bulbs were
covered with a papery tunic. It was time to dig.

> any green is still photosynthesizing but once
> pulled there's nothing more coming from the roots
> so will the plant send moisture from the cloves in
> the bulb to the leaves? i don't think so if you
> look at it once the roots are dry there's not too
> much going on between the leaves and the cloves or
> vice versa. as some evidence for that i don't see
> shrinkage of the cloves as the leaves are drying
> down and turning completely brown. i also don't
> see expansion because i don't leave the garlic in
> the sun while it cures and the only way it would
> be expanding would be if the leaves were sending
> energy to the cloves, but without roots and water
> in the plumbing i don't think much of that would
> happen.
>
> the garlic i grow is a hardneck garlic so there
> is no weaving of leaves to get a braid of garlic
> to hang. i don't mind if they turn brown and fall
> off, eventually when they are dried i will remove
> any of the dried leaves and trim the stem of the
> stalk off so it will store more easily.

I grow hardneck. It's in the old chicken coop, spread
out on screens, curing out of the sun.

>
>> I usually cut the scapes off as soon as I see them, but I've
>> had a very busy spring and just didn't. They came off today
>> before I set the garlic to cure, so they wouldn't drain the
>> life out of the bulbs.
>
> after garlic is lifted the scapes will not drain
> the life out of a bulb. once the stem is dry nothing
> much is going in or out of the bulb or the scapes via
> that route. some evaporation happens and that would
> be normal but i don't think it is significant enough
> to worry about.
>
> the most important things about growing large bulbs
> of garlic are starting with the largest cloves,

I buy my garlic planting stock. The cloves were huge.

> having
> decent soil, enough room between plants with no weed
> competition, full sun (and thus also how long they are
> left to grow) and regular watering. trimming off the
> scapes does very little overall to bulb size (compare
> the mass of the bulb vs. the mass of the scapes - a mm
> per clove? perhaps... by lifting early you may be
> making more of a dent in the size than what would be
> contributed by trimming the scapes). the size of the
> bulbs will also be influenced by what variety it is.

IT'S NOT EARLY HERE. I've been growing garlic for about
15 years. Last year's bulbs were big because we got
enough rain. This year, not so much.

> this is all written from my experience and not based
> upon any super precise scientific studies other than
> what i've observed through the years and working with
> the same variety of garlic for most of those. the
> factors i listed above all are significant and any one
> of them may limit the bulb size.

Thanks. I'll take it under advisement.

--
Cindy Hamilton

[songbird]

Cindy Hamilton wrote:
...

> IT'S NOT EARLY HERE. I've been growing garlic for about
> 15 years. Last year's bulbs were big because we got
> enough rain. This year, not so much.

...

same here, except i'm growing in mostly clay and
water a few times a week or even once a week but
more deeply. my plants are still mostly green with
only a little dying back going on so far. i don't
know the bulb size yet, but when i lift it i'll do
an update. ;)

as we're only a fairly short distance apart
(probably less than 100 miles) our conditions have
been fairly similar (other than the soil and my
watering being less frequent but deeper).


songbird

[Cindy Hamilton]

I lift the garlic about this time every year. 100 miles
north is a significant difference.

--
Cindy Hamilton

[Michael Trew]

On 7/5/2023 5:49 AM, Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> On 2023-07-04, songbird<song...@anthive.com> wrote:
>>
>> the garlic i grow is a hardneck garlic
>

> I grow hardneck. It's in the old chicken coop, spread
> out on screens, curing out of the sun.

You used to keep chickens?

I planted garlic (too late) earlier this year. I'm not even going to
touch it this year... hopefully it will be nice next year.

[Cindy Hamilton]

On 2023-07-06, Michael Trew <michae...@att.net> wrote:
> On 7/5/2023 5:49 AM, Cindy Hamilton wrote:
>> On 2023-07-04, songbird<song...@anthive.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> the garlic i grow is a hardneck garlic
>>
>> I grow hardneck. It's in the old chicken coop, spread
>> out on screens, curing out of the sun.
>
> You used to keep chickens?

No. Probably the first owners of the house, back in 1947. This
was out in the country then. They paved this road sometime between
1997 and 2000, before we bought the house.

--
Cindy Hamilton

[Bruce]

Your long - winded tales could be considered "trolling", Dave. Jill may put you into her killfile if you don't cease.

At the least, they are "OT", and thus not suitable for a cookery group.

[songbird]

likely they will end up as clumps of smaller bulbs
(perhaps also with a few singles in the mix). they
will do much better if you lift them and then replant
in the fall as single cloves won't have to compete
with all the siblings for water, nutrients and light.


songbird

[John Kuthe]

I would love to grow garlics someday, but after this season, I'm going to rip out all the veggies and hit the resulting soil with an herbicide repeatedly to get rid of the MINT I stupidly planted once! Mint took over my garden and I need to get rid of it! :-(

John Kuthe, RN, BSN

[Michael Trew]

Thanks, I was wondering how that worked. They told me it was a good
garlic "starter" plant when I bought it. I've never grown garlic before.

[Bruce]

If Cindy rubbed some of that garlic on her hairy legs, would the hair fall out?

[Cindy Hamilton]

The best way is to plant cloves of garlic in the fall, then harvest
them the following early summer.

https://www.almanac.com/plant/garlic

I'd follow songbird's advice.

--
Cindy Hamilton

[songbird]

Michael Trew wrote:
...

> Thanks, I was wondering how that worked. They told me it was a good
> garlic "starter" plant when I bought it. I've never grown garlic before.

it's interesting to see what happens when you don't
lift garlic for many years. the clump will have varying
sizes of bulbs as a result, but you will also see some
large single clove bulbs that did not grow that season.
they alternate with the surrounding neighbors.

it's really hard to get all of the garlic out of an
area once you've let the scapes fall and get established
and also hard to find all the parts of a clump if you've
dug it up and it's fallen apart before you could examine
it.

i once made the mistake of scattering thousands of
bulbules in a garden where i was growing green manure
crops of alfalfa and birdsfoot trefoil. it did well but
it was very hard to harvest digging it out of the roots
of those plants. it took me several years to get 2/3rds
of that garden cleared and then i had an injury so we
had to start mowing it and that eventually has knocked
back the remaining garlic along with me going back there
once in a while and digging up the remaining clumps for
green garlic. i think it's finally cleared out now.


songbird

[Dave Smith]

On 2023-07-08 5:13 p.m., songbird wrote:
> Michael Trew wrote:
> ...
>> Thanks, I was wondering how that worked. They told me it was a good
>> garlic "starter" plant when I bought it. I've never grown garlic before.
>
> it's interesting to see what happens when you don't
> lift garlic for many years. the clump will have varying
> sizes of bulbs as a result, but you will also see some
> large single clove bulbs that did not grow that season.
> they alternate with the surrounding neighbors.
>
> it's really hard to get all of the garlic out of an
> area once you've let the scapes fall and get established
> and also hard to find all the parts of a clump if you've
> dug it up and it's fallen apart before you could examine
> it.

I lifted mine today. As I mentioned previously, I planted some garlic a
few years ago, maybe 4-5<?> and had only dug up a few small bulbs. The
greenery had turned yellow and brown so I figured it was time to dig it
up. I had a lot of little bulbs, mostly 1/2 - 3/4" in size.

>
> i once made the mistake of scattering thousands of
> bulbules in a garden where i was growing green manure
> crops of alfalfa and birdsfoot trefoil. it did well but
> it was very hard to harvest digging it out of the roots
> of those plants. it took me several years to get 2/3rds
> of that garden cleared and then i had an injury so we
> had to start mowing it and that eventually has knocked
> back the remaining garlic along with me going back there
> once in a while and digging up the remaining clumps for
> green garlic. i think it's finally cleared out now.
>

The spot where mine had been growing was by my Wisteria. The tree on the
patio and the wisteria have both grown a lot so the garlic didn't get
much sunlight. I could try digging up another patch.... away from the
oaks and the black walnuts.

[Hank Rogers]

That's a damn shame, dave. Maybe you can sell the place and
move somewhere with more room. canada is pretty goddamn big,
and shit is cheap in the far north.

Lot's of americans in NY will buy your place.

[bruce bowser]

I keep hearing about Detroit style pan pizza. I wonder if they prefer cheese from Michigan cattle instead of the more popular Wisconsin.

[songbird]

Dave Smith wrote:
...

> The spot where mine had been growing was by my Wisteria. The tree on the
> patio and the wisteria have both grown a lot so the garlic didn't get
> much sunlight. I could try digging up another patch.... away from the
> oaks and the black walnuts.

it's definitely a full sun crop in the north and
doesn't like any competition. if you are going for
bigger bulbs only replant the largest cloves this fall
from what you harvested. when breaking up the bulbs
set aside the largest cloves for replanting and eat
the rest.

when i was growing all those thousands of garlic
plants and digging them out of the patch i had a five
gallon bucket half full of those small bulbs which i
went through and cleaned up for eating. i used them
to make a big pot of garlic relish which i put up and
it was good but very potent (being about 97% garlic
with only some vinegar, sugar, molasses and hot pepper
flakes in it). made an excellent addition to hot
dogs and kraut with yellow mustard instead of diced
onions. i also had another five gallon bucket of
larger bulbs that we used over the next year or i
gave away.

i used to grow a few hundred bulbs of garlic each
year, but i downsized to growing only a few dozen now.
last year someone complained that i didn't give them
some so i bumped up my planting this year so i can
give them some more.


songbird

[Mike Duffy]

On 2023-07-09, bruce bowser wrote:

> I wonder if they prefer cheese from Michigan
> cattle instead of the more popular Wisconsin.

With milk it depends more on breed than state, i.e. 'Jersy'
(Don't get confused; that's a state too).

[Bryan Simmons]

You have done a lot of things stupidly since you
started inheriting money. You bought your house
without realizing that it needed over $125K in roof
repairs. You thought that college students would
want to live there with a sickening old pervert,
your sickening old pervertedness being easily
discoverable with a simple Google search, since
you were stupid enough to post the shit that you
did to the internet.

The only way that you'd be useful is if you were
buried in a "green burial," where you could become
fertilizer for a patch of mint.
>
> John Kuthe, RN, BSN

--Bryan

[Graham]

On 2023-07-09 7:03 a.m., Mike Duffy wrote:
> On 2023-07-09, bruce bowser wrote:
>
>> I wonder if they prefer cheese from Michigan
>> cattle instead of the more popular Wisconsin.
>

> With milk it depends more on breed than state, i.e. 'Jersey'

> (Don't get confused; that's a state too).
>

and an island!

[Bruce]

Are they those deep pizzas that Americans fill with cheese to the
point that when they can't find cutlery, jewellery or small pets, it's
worth checking the pizza?

[Bruce]

Jersy's a state? A state of mind maybe?

[dsi1]

There used to be a chain of restaurants in Hawaii that served Detroit style pizza. This was back in the 70's - 80's. I can't remember the name of the place. It was a thick crust pizza. In that style of pizza, the crust is the important part, not the toppings. The pizza that we eat these days are all about the toppings. To be honest, sometimes we go a little crazy with the toppings.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5kLHuFN5TAQdkFzM7

[Bruce]

On Sun, 9 Jul 2023 12:36:44 -0700 (PDT), dsi1 <dsi...@hawaiiantel.net>
wrote:

Lol, indeed. Pizza Kitchensinka.

[cshenk]

New Jersey.

[Bruce]

Oh yes, where all the Italians live.

[cshenk]

dsi1 wrote:


> There used to be a chain of restaurants in Hawaii that served Detroit
> style pizza. This was back in the 70's - 80's. I can't remember the
> name of the place. It was a thick crust pizza. In that style of
> pizza, the crust is the important part, not the toppings. The pizza
> that we eat these days are all about the toppings. To be honest,
> sometimes we go a little crazy with the toppings.
>
> https://photos.app.goo.gl/5kLHuFN5TAQdkFzM7

I remember them or at least the pizza. The road that lead to Hawaii
University had one roughly across from the theater.

Not bad or good, but a slice tasted nice with a cold beer before going
for a movie with Don.

[dsi1]

I used to take classes in that theater. It was most unpleasant due to the lighting, the size of the theater, and the poor PA system. After the class, you had to get your ass back to the main campus. Sometimes you had 15 minutes or so to get to the other side of the university. OTOH, those were some pretty good times.

[GM]

Bering Sea Bar & Br...@MarthaStewart.GoodThing wrote:

> On Tuesday, July 4, 2023 at 10:03:04 AM UTC-5, Dave Smith wrote:

> > On 2023-07-04 10:18 a.m., Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> > > I lifted my garlic today. I'm not exactly sure how much I got. Maybe
> > > I'll weigh them once they're cured. The heads are disappointingly small,
> > > probably because of the drought. Watering is never as good as rain.
> > >

> > Drought? We had a few weeks of little or no rain, but we more than mad
> > up for it over the last few days. It rained most Friday and then
> > Saturday morning. It rained most of Saturday night and we had pouring
> > rain Sunday morning. We woke up to pouring rain on Monday morning. The
> > streams through my back yard overflowed and my neighbours had a small
> > lake in their back yard.
> >
> > On Saturday it cleared up enough for my friend and I to go on a
> > motorcycle ride to Niagara Falls. More accurately, it was to Chippewa,
> > just south of the falls. Heading back we saw dark clouds to the west and
> > figured we were going to get drenched. It turned out to be a light
> > drizzle so we hardly got wet. When we got back to our town the rain let
> > up and as I got closer to home the roads were bone dry, as if it had not
> > rained at all. I parked the bike in the shed and as I stepped out and
> > closed the door there was a loud roar of thunder. I walked into the
> > house and within a minute there was a deluge.
> >
> > I had waved to my neighbour two doors down as I passed. A few minutes
> > after the downpour started he texted me about my great timing and

> > wondered if I made it to the house before the rain.

> > >
> > > I put three heads in the kitchen for immediate use. Maybe we'll have
> > > a Caesar-ish salad soon.

> > I should dig up some of mine. I had planted it there a few years ago
> > primarily to repel Japanese beetles. That may or may not have worked.
> > There are almost none this year but I cannot be sure of the role of the
> > garlic compared to other factors like birds and one really cold winter.

> My local squirrel has returned, looking for last year's buried stash. The oak tree sprouted few acorns last year so it only got my popcorn remains to bury. Gotta reinforce the Tomatoe fencing from nibbling.


As a little girl struggles to do her homework by candlelight she looks at her mother through her glasses and asks, “What
did we use before we had candles?”.

Mom replies, “We had this thing called electricity but it was bad”.

--
GM

[cshenk]

I heard it's not a theater anymore, someplace. Yes, I can imagine it
wasn't easy to get back in time!

[songbird]

Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> On 2023-07-05, songbird <song...@anthive.com> wrote:
>> Cindy Hamilton wrote:
>> ...
>>> IT'S NOT EARLY HERE. I've been growing garlic for about
>>> 15 years. Last year's bulbs were big because we got
>>> enough rain. This year, not so much.
>>
>> ...
>>
>> same here, except i'm growing in mostly clay and
>> water a few times a week or even once a week but
>> more deeply. my plants are still mostly green with
>> only a little dying back going on so far. i don't
>> know the bulb size yet, but when i lift it i'll do
>> an update. ;)
>>
>> as we're only a fairly short distance apart
>> (probably less than 100 miles) our conditions have
>> been fairly similar (other than the soil and my
>> watering being less frequent but deeper).
>
> I lift the garlic about this time every year. 100 miles
> north is a significant difference.

turns out we're about 70 miles northish of AA.

lifted the garlic a few days ago

https://www.anthive.com/img/garlic/thm/DSC_20230723_141659-0400_2132_Garlic_thm.jpg

results were good considering the lack of regular
rains so my consistent watering paid off. in the
entire harvest there were only a few bulbs on the
smaller side, most were in the middle of the bell
curve and a few were larger.


songbird

[Cindy Hamilton]

Nice. That's what my garlic looks like most years.

OTOH, smaller heads aren't all bad. If I want one clove for a single
serving of something, I'm not overwhelmed.

Nice pavers, by the way.

--
Cindy Hamilton

[Bruce]

On Tue, 25 Jul 2023 13:22:36 -0400, songbird <song...@anthive.com>

Looks good! They look almost bleached.

[Bruce]

I've never seen a clove that was too big.

[songbird]

Cindy Hamilton wrote:
...

> Nice. That's what my garlic looks like most years.
>
> OTOH, smaller heads aren't all bad. If I want one clove for a single
> serving of something, I'm not overwhelmed.

we don't normally cook small amounts of things so
a usual amount of garlic for us to use is often 4 - 12
cloves. we're both fairly immune to garlic in that
we can't hardly taste it in most common foods that
others might make. the only time i really taste it
the most is not when it is cooked but instead when
it is fresh. often when i'm weeding and there is
garlic around there i'll pull some and eat it right
there.

> Nice pavers, by the way.

those are all made by Mom, she has a great eye for
colors and shapes.


songbird

[songbird]

that is the inner tunic before it has dried
completely, not too long after it was lifted
and the roots were trimmed off. the picture
is darker to me than it should be, my camera
and setup seem to always underexpose the pics
so if i forget to bump up the exposure things
look wrong.


songbird

[songbird]

Bruce wrote:
...

> I've never seen a clove that was too big.

some of these will be as big as my thumb
across (which is an inch according to my ruler).
some of the cloves will also be doubles. i'm
just putting a few more pictures on the website
including one that shows some leftover cloves
from last year's planting season that i set
aside in storage thinking we'd eat them. they
have lasted almost a year and most of them are
still edible enough to be useful. when i get
this update posted i'll put a link to that pic
here too.


songbird

[Bruce]

On Tue, 25 Jul 2023 22:45:41 -0400, songbird <song...@anthive.com>
wrote:

>Cindy Hamilton wrote:
>...
>> Nice. That's what my garlic looks like most years.
>>
>> OTOH, smaller heads aren't all bad. If I want one clove for a single
>> serving of something, I'm not overwhelmed.
>
> we don't normally cook small amounts of things so
>a usual amount of garlic for us to use is often 4 - 12
>cloves. we're both fairly immune to garlic in that
>we can't hardly taste it in most common foods that
>others might make. the only time i really taste it
>the most is not when it is cooked but instead when
>it is fresh. often when i'm weeding and there is
>garlic around there i'll pull some and eat it right
>there.

Especially when it's cooked, there's hardly a limit to how much garlic
I can handle. And I need a lot to be able to taste it separately.
Otherwise it becomes part of the background flavour, which is also
good. Sometimes we eat the cloves whole. Cooked, but whole.

[Cindy Hamilton]

On 2023-07-26, songbird <song...@anthive.com> wrote:
> Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> ...
>> Nice. That's what my garlic looks like most years.
>>
>> OTOH, smaller heads aren't all bad. If I want one clove for a single
>> serving of something, I'm not overwhelmed.
>
> we don't normally cook small amounts of things so
> a usual amount of garlic for us to use is often 4 - 12
> cloves.

I use about as much raw garlic as cooked. Salad dressings,
bruschetta, marinades. Last night's supper was marinated garbanzo
beans.

I usually make one serving of salad dressing fresh every day, so
I can have a nice variety.

We don't normally cook large amounts of things, except spaghetti
sauce, stock, and vegetable soup. I've been asked to work
beef medallions with brandy and garlic sauce into the lunch
rotation, soon.

> we're both fairly immune to garlic in that
> we can't hardly taste it in most common foods that
> others might make.

We got tzatziki with our Greek take-out on Monday. Couldn't
taste much garlic in it. Ours is enough to wake the dead.

--
Cindy Hamilton

[Bruce]

On Wed, 26 Jul 2023 08:56:40 GMT, Cindy Hamilton
<hami...@invalid.com> wrote:

>On 2023-07-26, songbird <song...@anthive.com> wrote:
>>
>> we don't normally cook small amounts of things so
>> a usual amount of garlic for us to use is often 4 - 12
>> cloves.
>
>I use about as much raw garlic as cooked. Salad dressings,
>bruschetta, marinades. Last night's supper was marinated garbanzo
>beans.
>
>I usually make one serving of salad dressing fresh every day, so
>I can have a nice variety.
>
>We don't normally cook large amounts of things, except spaghetti
>sauce, stock, and vegetable soup. I've been asked to work
>beef medallions with brandy and garlic sauce into the lunch
>rotation, soon.

"Darling please put beef medallions with brandy and garlic into the
lunch rotation soon. Also, please polish my shoes."

[Bruce]

On Tuesday, July 4, 2023 at 9:18:18 AM UTC-5, Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> I lifted my garlic today. I'm not exactly sure how much I got. Maybe
> I'll weigh them once they're cured. The heads are disappointingly small,
> probably because of the drought. Watering is never as good as rain.
>
>

> I put three heads in the kitchen for immediate use. Maybe we'll have
> a Caesar-ish salad soon.
>

Please add that France is a country in Europe where English isn't the
first language. We don't want to confuse the RFC'ers.

[songbird]

songbird wrote:
...

> that is the inner tunic before it has dried
> completely, not too long after it was lifted
> and the roots were trimmed off. the picture
> is darker to me than it should be, my camera
> and setup seem to always underexpose the pics
> so if i forget to bump up the exposure things
> look wrong.

arg! did it again!

https://www.anthive.com/img/garlic/thm/DSC_20230613_101010-0400_2007_Cloves_thm.jpg

i'll have to brighten that one up some more and
re-upload it eventually...

big enough cloves? these were leftover from planting
and then i put them in storage and forgot about them.
they're still in reasonable condition considering they've
been out of the ground for about a year (and broken apart
from their bulb last fall when i planted them).


songbird

[songbird]

songbird wrote:
...

> https://www.anthive.com/img/garlic/thm/DSC_20230613_101010-0400_2007_Cloves_thm.jpg
>
> i'll have to brighten that one up some more and
> re-upload it eventually...

bumped up the exposure, just could not leave it
being so gloomy.


songbird

[Bruce]

songbird wrote:

> Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> ...

> > During the period when the garlic was forming heads, we had no rain.
> > The last few days haven't made a dent in the soil; there are still
> > substantial cracks in the clay.
> i've been watering all along since we too had very little
> rain (maybe a half inch total) between Apr 5 and last week.
> this past week we've had about 2 inches of rain which is
> much better and the gardens are humming along.
>
> i don't lift the garlic here for another few weeks or
> perhaps even a month. it's been slow this year, the
> scapes are still green. we'll see...
>
>
> songbird


No trolling, please. Jill won't like it that you are trolling.