2019 Garlic is in the Ground!

For almost a month now our garlic has been in the ground.  It took 3 straight days to get it all in, all 6,000 cloves of garlic.  I think it was the coldest weather that I have ever had to plant garlic in, and it was windy too.

 

 I planted garlic in two different areas this year.  Here are the two areas, covered with straw and ready for winter.

 

This picture was taken on the third and final day of garlic planting.  We had to get done with the garlic planting because it was suppose to rain all next week.  We ended up having to spread straw by the headlights of my truck.

 

This is what the ground looks like after having pealed and planted thousands of garlics.

 

Farm Update

Here are a few updates on what we have been busy with lately at Real Veggies Farm.

Inside seed planting has started just over a month ago.  Right now I have started in my basement: cabbage, swiss chard, kohlrabi, eggplant, rhubarb, asparagus, onions, sweet peppers, basil, some other herbs, and a few other things.  Over the next couple of days I need to start my kale, mustard greens, some lettuce, and a few other things.

Right now I should be planting my lettuce outside.  Unfortunately due to the weather it does not look like I will be able to get that done within the next week.  So I am planning on starting some of my lettuce in my hoophouse and transplanting it outside, that way I may have some lettuce for some of my shows in May.  Everything outside right now is like a very cold swamp, not what it is normally like this time in April.  Hopefully some time soon our weather gets a little warmer.  I am getting a little tired of seeing snow in the weather forecast.

I made a trip out to the farm last weekend to see how my garlic is doing, and it seems to be doing quite well.  You can not see the garlic very well, but it is there.

 

 I have some good news to tell everyone.  Starting this coming weekend we will now begin accepting credit cards!  A few weeks ago I decided that I was going to get a smart phone, so that I could begin accepting credit cards.  Tomorrow I am going to be retiring my flip phone for good, and switching over to my new smart phone!  Everything has been tested and ready to go, all I have to do is switch over my phone and we will be ready to accept credit cards this weekend.

Also on another happy note, this year will be our 10 year anniversary of selling at Valley City Farmers Market.  Last year 2017 was Valley City Farmers Market's 10 year anniversary.   

 

Real Veggies Farm Garlic

Here are the varieties of garlic that I currently have in the ground and will be digging up in July.

Chet's Italian Garlic

#1

Soft Neck (Artichoke)

Nice Medium Taste, HOT Raw 

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Red Tochliavari Garlic

#2

Soft Neck (Artichoke)

Mild Flavor

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Inchelium Garlic

#3

Soft Neck (Artichoke)

Medium Flavor

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Korean Red Garlic

#4

Hard Neck (Rocambole)

Strong Flavor, HOT

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Bogatyr Garlic

#5

Hard Neck (Marbled Purple Stripe)

Medium Strong Flavor

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Khabar Garlic

#6

Hard Neck (Marbled Purple Stripe)

Medium Flavor

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Musik Garlic

#7

Hard Neck (Porcelain)

Nice Strong Flavor, Large Cloves

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Romanian Red Garlic

#8

Hard Neck (Porcelain)

Strong Flavor, HOT

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German White Garlic
#9
Hard Neck (Porcelain)
Strong Flavor, Large Cloves
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Latina Italian Garlic
#10
Soft Neck (Silver Skin)
Very Nice Medium Strong Flavor
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German Red Garlic
#15
Hard Neck (Rocambole)
Full Body Robust Flavor
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Carpathian Garlic
#17
Hard Neck (Rocambole)
Hot & Spicy
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Siberian Garlic
#18
Hard Neck (Rocambole)
Lots of Heat, Raw
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Georgian Fire Garlic
#20
Hard Neck (Porcelain)
Pleasant Strong Flavor, HOT Raw
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Chinese Red Garlic
#21
Medium Flavor
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I also have some new varieties in the ground, but I will be saving most of what I have in the ground, of those varieties, for planting this year, so that way I will have more next year.  When I start to dig out the new garlic varieties in July I will have to do a post on the new varieties and how they did.

Garlic Planting

Over the past two weeks I have been working on planting all my garlic for next year.  I still have a little more to get in but most my garlic is now in the ground.

Compost and manure spread over my garlic area, before I tilled and started planting the garlic.

Tilled and ready for garlic to go in the ground.

 

 

Day 1 of garlic planting.

 

 

Day 2 of garlic planting.  

I was able to get in almost all of the garlic, I still have a little bit of garlic to get in at the ends of the rows. 

I am hoping to be able to get in the rest of my garlic this week.  I would have been planting garlic today, if it wasn't for all the rain that we got on Sunday, the ground is a little too wet right now to be able to plant garlic.

The Start of Garlic Harvesting!

Today I dug a little bit of garlic for this weekends markets.  I will be digging the rest of my garlic over the next couple weeks.  Fresh dug garlic is wonderful, since it has not yet been dried it will not store for long (unless you dry them), but it is the juiciest garlic you will ever taste!

 Romanian Red Garlic and Georgia Fire Garlic

And here are a few more pictures that I took from around the farm.

Tomatoes, Pole Beans, and Bush Beans

Garlic Planting Time!

It is garlic planting time, and today I was able to get a lot of my garlic in the ground.  I planted at total of 16 different varieties.  My garlic garden at home is now full, and tomorrow I will be planting more out at the farm.

Garlic waiting to be planted.

 

Garlic garden at home all planted.

Garlic is finally in the ground!

It took awhile, mostly my own fault, but the garlic is finally in the ground. We got most of it in the ground on Nov. 12th. I believe we planted somewhere around 15 different varieties of garlic. Unfortunately we will not be selling all those different varieties next year because most of them we will be saving to plant next fall, but it is still very exciting to be planting so many different varieties.

Below is a picture of the area in which we planted our garlic. We did not plant the entire row, but we did plant quite a bit of it.