Thursday, May 30, 2013

My garlic crop is growing so very nicely, thanks to the chopped oak leaf mulch, the seaweed (that D & I gathered through the seasons!) and the EM (magic stuff, really).

The hardnecks are just gigantic and I’ve been harvesting the scapes .. some of which I’ve chopped up and put in the freezer for later stir-fries and some I’ve made into pesto .. oh, my goodness .. very garlic-y!   And really, the scapes have grown so early on this crop .. I’m sure that last year that they didn’t arrive till much later.

Stepping back . .here is a view of my garlic crop .. I’ve planted them in  rectangles this year, and should have made the paths between them wider than I did .. guess I got a little greedy in wanting to plant more garlic!

A little Golden Crowned Sparrow was walking through the garlic forest ..

I am so looking forward to harvesting this crop …

Finding tiny objects from the seaweed .. so I decided to decorate the garlic leaves .. pretty, hey?

The great, ah, scape .. ha ha

A little Robin goes hunting in the garlic forest …

I mixed up a batch of garlic scape pesto .. no recipe .. just roughly chopped up the scapes, tossed into the trusty Braun food processor, added lots of olive oil, sunflower seeds, slivered almonds .. finely grated Parmesan cheese … yummmmmmm… very delicious.  Using an ice-cream scoop, soon filled a parchment covered cookie sheet .. into the freezer for a while .. and then ..

Filled up a ziplock bag and in the freezer .. ready to toss into soups, stews, spaghetti, sandwiches .. sheer heaven ..

Young Anna’s … so very sweet ..

Welcome visitors .. I just know these babies have hatched somewhere in our little forested yard ..

My deluxe greenhouse .. an airplane windshield .. so very perfect …

I’ve planted these coffee sacks with potatoes … interesting to see how many potatoes I will get.  There are also some volunteer potatoes that I missed digging out .. so happily I will have many potatoes this year.  I heard about growing potatoes in burlap bags, so this is my version of that idea.  I put the bags inside sturdy garbage bags, with holes punched in the bottom for drainage.  And as the plants grow, I’ll unroll the tops and add more soil.

As a matter of fact .. that is what I am going to do right now .. change into my gardening clothes and run .. well. … .first I”ll brew some more tea and then I’ll rush outside!!

🙂