Gardening Thread - Show me your gardens!

Second garlic harvest





And the trimmed and ready to go from the first round. We definitely harvested these a little too soon, flavor is very mild.

 

i would like some garlic growing tips.

do they tolerate heat? droughts? lots of rain?

do they prefer winter? are they frost tolerant?

 

I grow mine through the winter. I live in northern NV and plant them around Halloween and harvest end of June - July depending on the season and varietal. I prefer to grow Susanville which is a hearty type that can stand up to winter. In my experience, the wetter and colder the winter the better the final product. When we get big snows (which is not very often) we take the snow and pile it up on the garden. We also throw a little bit of straw or leaves over the rows right before it starts to get wet. When the tops start to turn yellow and fall over its time to harvest. Hope that helps.

 

it did.

i added it to my fall crop list!

 

Sweet!

 

For sure will try this out. Appreciate the info.

 

Do you pickle any of your garlic, or do you just store it in the husks in a root cellar?

A little late to the party, but I agree. Soapy water is how I control my aphid population too. The soap strips the wax from their bodies and they dehydrate.

 

Two years ago I pickled a large jar of it. It was one of my first attempts to pickle something and it only turned out so so. Last year I didn't pickle any because the harvest wasn't that big and I wanted to use it for other stuff. This year we have a bunch so maybe I'll give it a go again. Anyone have any pickling tips/recipes?

 

My garden is finally producing. Beans are from each of the last 2 days and the cucumber was this morning.

 

thats a kinky looking cucumber

 

Gotcha. I pickle a bunch every year and use it for cooking during the winter. The garlic can be used in any recipe that calls for fresh, and I don't notice any difference in the flavor. And the leftover brine from the jars is a great addition to soups, because it absorbs a lot of the garlic flavor. I use just a basic brine recipe and do it in half-pint jars. That way the processing cook time is kept to a minimum so it doesn't get mushy. This is basically the brine that I use:

2 3/4 Cups Cider Vinegar
3 Cups water
1/4 Cup Canning Salt (table salt works, but it'll make your brine cloudy because of the iodine that's added to table salt)

Mix them all up in a stainless steel pot and get it hot (but not boiling) and keep it hot the entire time you're canning. Once you're done don't store any leftover brine, just dump it out. This recipe's great because you can scale it up really easily for large batches, too.

 

Do you just fill up a mason jar or something similar, put the garlic in, add the liquid and seal it up?

 

No, I heat-process them in a water-bath canner. Preheat the mason jars in a hot water bath, add the garlic, fill with brine (leave about 1/2-3/4 inch of headspace). Put the lids on, screw the rings on loosely (just enough to hold the lids in place, loose enough for air to escape). Put them in a boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes and pull them out and let them cool. That way I can just store them in the cellar pantry; I don't have to worry about refrigeration.

 

Awesome, I've always wondered how you did this and have seen my MIL doing it and just never asked Thanks for the explanation, I'll definitely try this method this year!

 

I was the same way before I moved out of my parent's house. My mom always tended the garden (my brother and I helped weed and that was about it) and did the freezing, preserving, and cooking. I moved out, lived on Ramen & Kraft Mac-N-Cheese for a month and decided that something had to change, haha!

 

nothing wrong with ramen and mac n cheese

 

Especially if there are cut up hotdogs in them

 

ever had them without the broth?

 

Do I look like I'm ?!?!














but yes, yes I have

 

cook them in the microwave with very little water.. then drain them..mix the powder in.. you get dry whatever the powder is flavored noodles.