Garlic!

Garlic Heaven! (Where good bulbs are planted…)

Fall is bulb-planting season, and at Booty Family Farm, that means garlic and lots of it! Well, technically it’s cloves that are planted to grow bulbs. They get started in the cool of fall, take a nap during the cold of winter (like bears, I suppose), then shoot up as the soil warms in the spring. The curly scapes (the flower bulbs) are nipped off to encourage underground bulb thickening and to provide us with delicious roasted-toasted-crunchy-savory snacks and vibrant pesto. Diane even pickles garlic scapes, coiled artfully in canning jars.

What else can you do with garlic? In Gilroy, California, there’s a garlic festival in July where one can buy garlic ice cream along with every imaginable garlic-infused delicacy. Garlic chocolate, anyone? There’s a festival queen who is chosen based on a speech about garlic, talent, and an evening gown competition. Hmmmm….  Lots of fun, but don’t attempt to drive from San Francisco to the Monterey Bay Aquarium during the festival. Take it from me.

Last Saturday Stephen alerted me to the garlic planting schedule and invited me to “pop a few in.” Who could resist? I tromped down the leaf-blanketed woodland trail from my little house to the field above the farmhouse. Steve was busily separating garlic bulbs when I arrived (a seed variety chosen for size and plumpness), and Rachel and Matt were planting.

That’s friend Allison in the photo helping with the work. She first hooked up with the farm when Steve was promoting the “Weed for Feed” program, inviting friends and neighbors to help out in exchange for veggies. Sweet! (Not sure what Elsa’s working on perched up there in her Carhartt overalls. Such a farmer girl!)

Matt was using the homemade multi-dibbler to make holes and Rachel was popping the cloves in. (Pointy side up, please!) Two varieties went in — the giant robust German Extra Hardy variety (only about four mammoth cloves per bulb) and the lovely, rosy Russian Red with a more modest 8 cloves per bulb. Three long rows were planted, that’s 900 feet of compost-mulched soil bedding 2,700 garlic cloves. Young, spry backs are helpful for that part of the job!

German Extra Hardy & Russian Red

Multi-Dibbler

Dibblers are simply tools used to poke holes in soil, and like many tools on the farm, ours are handmade using good old Yankee ingenuity. The multi-dibbler originally sported a handle made from a section of stair railing that was leftover from my parents’ house. That would have been my brother Peter’s handiwork. Recently, Steve acquired a lathe, and now handles are custom turned to make them easier on the hands. Steve made this single dibbler on the lathe. How’s that for fancy workmanship?

Fancy Single Dibbler

Cinnamon Bun

The newly planted garlic was then covered with a blanket of steamy mulch hay. Steve referred to the hay rolls as “cinnamon buns.” I’m sure that’s a technical term. What do you think?

You can tell from the photos that it was an exceedingly beautiful, warm October day. How glorious to be outdoors on the farm with Mount Israel watching over us, decked in Autumn splendor. We’ve since gotten some welcome soaking rain; I imagine the newly planted garlic is very happy right now.

The Red Trail

Here are photos of my return trip home through the big woods to my little house. This path is called the “Red Trail.” Look for the red-painted lemonade can top tapped into the tree to the left. It’s up so high to account for snow. Not that I could possibly get lost on this trail in the winter. With the leaves off the trees, I can see my house from the upper farm field.

Todd and I watched a beautiful young bull moose browsing in our meadow the other evening. I keep an eye out for him now. 🙂

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