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WHAT
WE DO
DO TO PRODUCE OUR GARLIC
We
grow our garlic on our 10 acre hayfield - land which has had no chemicals
or chemical fertilizers applied for at least 40 years.
Our
hayfield borders our house and is on a small road, miles from any major
highways or industry.
We
use leaves and hay cut from our own property. We never apply fertilizers,
insecticides, fungicides, herbicides or anything else to our trees, fields
or lawns.
We
use composted llama manure. We pick up our "llama beans" from a
local farm. Their llamas are not fed steroids or antibiotics.
We
irrigate with our drinking water from our own 135 foot deep well.
We
practice cleanliness to avoid contamination of future fields with crop
residues (stems, skins, etc.).
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WHAT
WE DON'T
DO TO PRODUCE OUR GARLIC
We don't
used "approved" pesticides, herbicides or fungicides.
We
don't use leaves from the village, town or other people's lawns.
We
don't use "approved" fertilizers such as "processed"
sewage, sludge, leather waste or any other dubious products.
We
don't use commercial compost or community generated compost or
composted organic waste from landfills.
We
don't use cow, horse or chicken manure since they may contain steroids,
antibiotics or other contaminants.
We
don't use newspapers or any other recycled mulch. Many authorities say
it's organically safe. I'm a chemist and I disagree.
We
don't "dip" our cloves in bleach before planting and we don't
wash the heads after digging.
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HOW
WE GROW AND PROCESS OUR GARLIC
All our garlic seed came
from certified organic sources or sources we know personally. We begin the
planting process by choosing a virgin plot and spreading 50 pounds of kelp
meal and 40 pounds of gypsum (not recycled wall board) per 1,000 square
feet. We till these into the sod and sow buckwheat. After the
flowers form and before it goes to seed, we till the buckwheat under and
we sow yellow sweet clover, inoculated with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. We
allow this to grow through the second year until the clover flowers. We
till the clover under before it goes to seed, rake out any rocks and sow
annual rye grass. We mow the ryegrass until we are ready to plant, about a
week or two before October.
We select our previously
harvested and cured garlic and break the heads into cloves. We choose the
largest cloves for planting. We use a grid made from 1 x 3 stock, that
gives us three squares across and fourteen squares long. We plant in the
center of each square, which gives us 8 inches between cloves. We use a
bulb planter (digger) - a 3 inch wide steel cylinder with a handle and
foot pegs to dig each hole, right through the carpet of annual rye. We
then add a pre-measured amount of composted llama beans into each hole. We
sprinkle kelp meal, then a pinch of steamed bone meal into each hole. We
then gently place one clove in each hole, pointed side up. We fill each
hole with the soil removed with the bulb planter and sprinkle more kelp
meal and blood meal over each row. Shredded leaves are spread out over the
planted rows. We then cover the whole area (planted
and walking rows) with hay from our field. Some people use straw because
it has no weed seeds. Our hay is free and I know where it came from.
In the spring we check for
the new garlic sprouts, add a little hay to bare areas or areas that look
like some weeds may be coming up. If some sprouts appear to be struggling
to get through the mulch, we give them a little help. When the sprouts
seem to be coming up well, we foliar feed with a mixture of fish emulsion
and liquid kelp. We try to do this every two-three weeks. Before the
sprouts get too many leaves, we lay porous "soaker" hoses
between the rows and connect them to our water supply. I have found out
through past experience that if you lay the hoses down, you'll have a wet
year and probably won't need to turn on the water. If you don't lay the
hoses down, you'll have a dry year and then you'll have a heck of a time
"threading" them between the garlic plants. By the end of May,
we stop watering and foliar feeding.
Sometime in June we cut the
scapes. The scapes appear as spear-like stalks and emerge straight up.
They will begin to coil and depending on the strain, some will go a full
circle and some will go less. When the scapes begin to uncoil (they will
try to "go straight"), we cut them off as close to the uppermost
leaves as possible (without damaging the leaves).
As garlic matures, the
leaves turn yellow, then brown. When a little less than half the
leaves have turned brown or withered (from the bottom up) - sometime
around July 4th, we dig the plants and remove the dirt from the roots. It
is important to keep the heads from exposure to the sun. We tie the plants
in bundles of ten and hang them to dry (cure) in our barn, ensuring good
air circulation. Sometimes we need to use fans, depending on the weather
and garlic conditions. Most people wait 3 to 4 weeks, we wait 6 to 8. Then
we cut off the stems about 1-2 inches above the head, and grade the heads
by size and condition. The bulbs we intend to sell get a little root trim
and cleaning. Sometimes we need to remove the outer skin to make it more
attractive. The idea is to keep as much skin on as possible to protect the
head. Garlic should be kept in a normal humidity area at room temperature,
with adequate circulation - never in the refrigerator or plastic bags or
containers. Garlic needs to breathe. We have had some strains last until
the following July.
It ain't over yet! That
plot we just dug up doesn't get planted with garlic until 3 years later.
Next year's crop gets planted in field #2 and then field #3 the following
year. The non-planted fields get cover crops like sudan grass, buckwheat,
white clover and annual rye.
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