Garlic Prep

Lionshead and I enjoyed a quiet evening at home, prepping our garlic seed for planting. We had a very successful harvest of about 40 heads of garlic this year, but we are planning a massive expansion for next year. Garlic grows so well here, and takes up so little space, and we just love it so darn much.

We bought 3 pounds of seed garlic from these nice garlic lovers. The garlic is a variety they found growing wild near an abandoned adobe in Chamisal, NM. They suspect it had been growing there for quite some time. This is, of course, a top-setting variety, which means it produces small bulbils on the stalk in addition to a head at the bottom. This smart evolutionary move means that top-setting garlic can propagate itself without human intervention. Say, in the yard of an abandoned house...

We like plants that can survive without people.

And oh, this garlic. The paper separating the cloves is deep purple, the cloves are large and firm, and the smell is heavenly. I estimate that we will harvest several hundred heads of this wonderful locally adapted garlic next year.

Oh, and please don't make fun of me for the music in the background. I'm somewhat masochistic when it comes to my tolerance for community radio. I'm sure some of you will understand.