Garlic Galore

Garlic harvest is finally finished. It took many days, but all 12,000 plants are out of the ground and hanging in the shed. Or almost all 12,000 plants, at least. We lost a few more plants to neck rot (the fungus we were looking out for in the past). Also, voles ate a few bulbs and I found out that couch grass (also known as quack grass) sends out roots with spikes on them that can grow right through garlic bulbs. Once the clove inside is exposed, the bulb will not cure and store very well, so it has to be eaten fresh or thrown away.

By the way, it looks like we finished just in time--the rain seems to be coming through tonight, and our bodies have just about had it. Patrick and Colleen were feeling sunstroked, Graham's wrists were hurting from all the plants he pulled, and my back is more sore than it's ever been in my entire life. I took a couple of ibuprofen at lunch, which seemed to help a bit.


Here's the company logo from a seed stand that Patrick and Colleen had at a local store:


After we finished up work today, I cooked up some dinner. We had a lot of collard greens left from the market, so I made collards, biscuits and gravy, and grilled vegetables. This was everyone's first experience with Southern food, but I think they all enjoyed it. There was very little food left, which is always a good sign.

Finally, we've had some magnificent skies tonight as the rain clouds have started rolling in:


I'll try to write more over the next couple of days, but I am off tomorrow and Tuesday, so I might do a lot of sleeping and lounging about. Unfortunately, such activities don't make for interesting blog material.