Category Archives: garlic

Garlic Harvest

July 11, 2016garlic, Garlic Harvest, Red Toch Garlic, Uncategorizedruthsoaper

Our garlic harvest started this morning. In case you are not a regular reader I have posted the links for the series I did last October about planting the garlic.

https://donteatitsoap.com/2015/10/08/this-is-a-lot-of-work/

https://donteatitsoap.com/2015/10/09/garlic-update-and-cold-and-flu-season/

https://donteatitsoap.com/2015/10/12/another-garlic-update/

https://donteatitsoap.com/2015/10/13/woo-hoo-the-2016-garlic-crop-is-planted/

I’ll admit I had concerns about the garlic throughout the winter but my husband continually reassured me that the garlic would be fine. The garlic sprouted before the freeze ever came and then winter brought continual freeze and thaw cycles. The young leaves on the garlic were frost bit. In spring the garlic was already growing up through the straw mulch so there was no need to pull the straw away. We did give it a small dose of fertilizer.

The month of June was very dry and required much watering along with weeding of the garlic.

While watering the plants I began noticing that some of the plants seemed substantially bigger than in past years. The last watering was done during the last week of June since it is recommended to stop watering two weeks before harvesting.

Like with last falls planting we saw no need to do marathon harvest. We decided to harvest one variety at a time.

The rains that finally arrived last week, and brought our ground moisture levels much closer to normal, were such a blessing. We were able to take a break from watering crops and actually took much of the weekend off. The moisture also softened up the ground so digging would be easier. On Friday I decided that we would begin digging the Red Toch garlic on Monday morning.

Kara (my daughter who recently graduated from college and needed some summer work)and I began this project around 9:00 A.M.

This is my tool of choice for digging garlic. The long narrow blade is perfect for loosening the soil close to the individual plants and digging deep enough to loosen the roots. The handle is also at a comfortable height for me.

We worked as a team, while I loosened the soil around the plants, Kara picked them up and shook up the extra soil.

I was immediately amazed at the size of the bulbs. We both used phrases like “Wow “or “Look at that!” or “WOW!” several times. “Some of these are the size of small apples” I told her. Truthfully I believe that at least 90% of the bulbs we dug today were as big or bigger than the original seed garlic that I purchased 4 years ago.

We stacked the garlic in trays to carry to todays outdoor drying station.

We placed them on tarps and layered them so the bulb parts were exposed to the air, the purpose being to allow the rest of the soil that is stuck to them to dry so it can be brushed off. Todays cloudy skies also proved to be a blessing, because while I wanted the bulbs exposed to air I did not want them baking in the hot sun.

Guess who showed up to help. Kara, who was not fond of all the worms and spiders she was seeing, was happy to see this girl.

I don’t have an exact count, but there are somewhere between 800 and 900 hundred garlic plants that we dug this morning. It took us about two hours to get this much done. Once the soil dries and can be brushed from the bulbs they will be moved to indoor drying shelves for the next two to four weeks where the bulbs will continue to dry or cure.

While I am super excited about this bountiful harvest, I am assessing the growing season to determine what factors contributed. The first thing we did differently was change the location of the garlic bed. This plot, which in previous years had served as our main garden, was tilled last summer and then seeded with clover as a cover crop. Throughout the summer as the clover would grow up we would mow it down before it could go to seed. Just days before we planted garlic last fall the clover was tilled under. The soil in this plot was much more of a loam than a clay compared to our previous garlic beds. The drainage in this area was also very good. The straw mulch aided in keeping the weeds down. For this particular variety the warmer winter temperatures were probably beneficial as Red Toch is a soft neck garlic, and soft neck garlic are normally grown in the south or in warmer climates. I am certain that the early fertilizer as well as the watering and weeding throughout the month of June aided in the growth, but I also remember the simple prayer that we said after we planted our garlic last fall. “Lord please bless our efforts.”

Yes, I am sure that each of these factors has played a roll in producing such a extraordinary crop, and even though the entire crop is not yet harvested, our prayer today is, “Thank You, Lord”.

Garlic Scapes

June 17, 2016garlic, garlic scapes,, Uncategorizedruthsoaper

What are garlic scapes???

They are the seed heads produced by hardneck garlic varieties. They appear in the spring, and if left to grow they will flower and produce dozens of tiny garlic bubils (seeds). Most growers cut the scape off the garlic plant in order to allow the garlic to put more energy into growing a bigger bulb. If cut early the scapes are tender and delicious. They are said to have the same nutritional value as garlic bulbs, and although they possess a milder flavor when cooked, they are a culinary delight. They are great roasted, grilled, stir fried or used raw in dips, salads and pesto. To discover great garlic scape recipes simply do an internet search for garlic scape recipes. They are only available for a short time in the spring but can be preserved by freezing or pickling.

I will be selling garlic scapes at the Memphis farmers market tomorrow morning, in Memphis, Michigan, from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. or if you are interested in purchasing garlic scapes send me an email at ruth20012001@yahoo.com put “garlic” in the subject line.

Life Is Happening Faster Than I Can Write

March 2, 2016Bees, Chicks, Dehydrated Garlic, garlic, homemade, Making Maple Syrup, Pond, The Farm, Weather, Windmillruthsoaper

I don’t know about other writers but it takes me a while, anywhere from couple hours to a couple days, to write a blog post. I’ll write some, then go back and read and edit and stop to do other things or just collect my thoughts, then I’ll write some more and reread and edit and you get the picture. It seems to happen quite often that I’ll be working on one post when something else comes up, and I decide to write about that instead. At this point I have no fewer then a dozen drafts saved, potential posts that are started but just haven’t got completed and published yet. I suspect that some will get finished in the future, some may be deleted, and some of the thoughts may be incorporated in other post.

With several things on my mind this morning, I just realized that life is happening faster than I can write. (This is probably why I’ve never been able to keep a journal for very long.) Todays post we be about various things.

In Like A Lion

It’s hard to believe that today is March 1st already. See what I mean about life happening fast. Today is actually March 2nd. Still hard to believe. Whichever day it is, March did arrive and in our area it came in like a lion. I wouldn’t describe it as a raging or even roaring lion but the lion was not sleeping last night either, it was perhaps was just resting or playfully romping. We got a decent amount of snow, but as seems to be the case lately, not as much as the weather forecasters predicted. Probably the most accurate weather forecast that I heard yesterday was given by the radio DJ that said “were gonna get a lot of snow”. Since it was snowing pretty hard at that time it was a safe bet that he was right. Looking at flat surfaces outside it looks like we got about four inches, but since it was a light fluffy snow and the wind was blowing, some areas on the ground may have eight inches while others only have a couple. The “lion” may have caused adverse travel conditions, and shut down schools and senior centers, but I am not aware of any power outages or actual storm damage in our area. The “lion” did give us the opportunity to play in the snow a little today. 🙂 My big hope now is that when “March goes out like a lamb” it is not an unruly lamb.

Maple Syrup Update

One thing I didn’t realize about sap flow, and I don’t know how typical this is, was how it will stop and start again. Since the temperatures have been so unstable we have had the sap flow for a day or two, then stop for several days, then flow for a day or two, then stop again. We had a whole week between the first sap boiling and the next time we had sap to boil, but this past Sunday, with temperatures topping out near 60 degrees, was a great day to be at the farm boiling sap. While my husband was there all day, I joined him there for a few hours and took some pictures of the process that I did not get during the last syrup making.

You can see in the above pictures that the sap has boiled down some.

The next series of pictures shows how the sap will foam up and boil over if the fire underneath is extremely hot.

Stirring the pot and reducing the flame brought it back down.

The next picture shows that were getting close to the point where we will finish it off on the stove in the house. It has cooked way down and is turning brown. It also tastes sweet.

When we brought the sap home the first step was to filter it. To do this we used a jelly bag set inside a flour sifter. It may not be a professional method, but it works. We did set the filter up on two small glasses to give the sap room to drain into the pan.

We then followed the same process that we did previously, boiling the sap until it became thick and reached 219 degrees Fahrenheit on the thermometer. Instead of bottling it immediately like we did last time. We let the temperature drop to 200 degrees and filtered it again.

Last time we did not filter it after boiling, and we ended up with sand in the bottom of the jar. I did a little research and found out that the sand is formed during the boiling process, so in order to have clear syrup it must be filtered after the boiling is complete. This time we do not have any sand in it.

My husband estimated cooking about 50 quarts of sap and our yield turned out to be these (10) 4 ounce jars of syrup, equal to 1 and 1/4 quarts, so our ratio of sap to syrup was 40:1. And the flavor is oh so good!

Sharing The Kitchen

With Sunday being such a nice day the sap continue to flow and my husband spent yesterday, again, cooking sap at the farm, while I spent the day at home peeling garlic to dehydrate. Once I got the approximately 3 lbs. of garlic peeled. I realized that Dom would be bringing syrup home to cook this evening. Knowing that once I put the garlic in the dehydrator the smell of garlic would permeate the house, I decided that I would wait. I don’t know if it would happen, but I didn’t want the syrup to pick up the smell and perhaps the flavor of garlic. Garlic flavored syrup just does not sound appetizing. I put the peeled garlic in a zip lock bag freezer bag and put it in the fridge for the night.

We cooked up some of the sap last night and the rest will remain in cold storage until we are ready to cook it. Today the garlic is in the dehydrator. It should be finished by tomorrow morning.

Chick Update

The chicks are doing well.

Getting their pin feathers.

Enjoying their playhouse.

And making new friends.

Others Enjoyed Sunday’s Weather As Well

The bees were out on Sunday.

The Chickens enjoyed the weather as well.

I don’t know if the pond ever completely froze over this year.

Widely because the windmill has done it’s job.

You can’t tell from this picture but the windmill was spinning.

That’s All Folks

At least that’s enough for today. Until Next Time 🙂

Dehydrating Garlic

January 21, 2016Dehydrated Garlic, garlic, homemaderuthsoaper

As I mentioned in my last post, dehydrating garlic was one of the things on my to-do list. I find that having a to-do list helps me focus on the things I need to get done and crossing off things as they get done gives a sense of accomplishment. I have been very lax in making these lists for myself lately, so writing my last post has reminded me of what a great tool this is. It also motivated me to get busy, and that is what I did.

After writing that post I decided that Monday would be a good day to dehydrate garlic. I started with taking apart the garlic bulbs, and I selected a bowl that I thought would hold the right amount, and I filled it up with garlic cloves.

The bulbs that I used were mostly smaller bulbs that I had set aside for home use, because I thought they were to small to sell. They were a mixture of all five varieties that we grow. https://donteatitsoap.com/2015/08/09/the-garlic-is-in/

The next step, and certainly the most time consuming, was to peel each clove. I did this using my garlic peeler, and although it took a total of about three hours to peel all of those cloves it didn’t seem too bad once I got into a rhythm.

It actually reminded me, of many years ago, when I worked as a machine operator in a factory. I would challenge myself to run the machine as efficiently as possible. It was always a matter of having things set up properly, and usually doing one thing with one hand while doing something else with the other. Concentration was important.

After I had all of the garlic peeled I decided to weigh it before dehydrating it. It weighed 3 lbs. It will be interesting to see how much it weighs when it is finished.

This certainly would have been quicker if I had been using average size bulbs of garlic, but those are the ones we sell, and even quicker had I used large bulbs, but those are the ones we planted for next years crop.

The next step was to slice the garlic cloves. For this I decided to use my food processor with the slicing blade in it. It was obviously faster than slicing them all with a knife, and I believe they were more evenly sliced than if I had attempted to do them by hand.

Next I spread the garlic slices in a single layer on the trays of the dehydrator.

It actually worked out perfectly. 3lbs of garlic filled up all 9 trays of the dehydrator. When I looked online to find out what temperature would be best for drying the garlic I found answers that varied from 105 degrees all the way up to 125 degrees. I decided to go with 110 which was recommended by several blogs that I read. At 7:30 p.m. (19:30 hours) I set the timer for 20 hours, but I knew I would check it in the morning to see how it was coming along.

The smell of garlic quickly filled the house. My husband described it as a little overpowering, and when we went to bed he asked if I thought if we could die from garlic asphyxiation as we slept. I wasn’t worried, but I did keep my nose tucked under the covers most of the night.

By morning the smell was not nearly as strong but it was still very present. As we talked about it I wondered if the smell of garlic dehydrating works similar to aroma therapy. Could the smell have cleansed the home of bacteria or viruses that may have been present, and what potential health benefits could we have reaped from doing this?

The garlic was still pliable in the morning, and since I wanted it to be dry to the point of being brittle, I let the drying continue. I checked it several times throughout the day. At one point I realized that the upper trays seemed to be drying faster then the lower trays so I moved some of the trays around to get a more even drying. Finally when I checked the garlic at around 8:30 p.m. (20:30 hours) I determined that it was completely dry. 25 hours after starting it, I turned off the dehydrator and left it for the night.

The garlic dehydrating was done at this point and I could have packaged it in air tight containers and stored it as garlic chips. My husband said I could fool people by offering them a banana chip, but when I offered him a banana chip he said, “No thanks, I already tried one.” Instead of packaging it up like this, I decided to go one step farther and make garlic powder. I pulled out the food processor again but this time put in the sharp chopping blade. I filled the food processor about 1/3 full of garlic chips and turned it on. It was so loud that I turned it off and went to get some ear plugs to wear as I finished this.

Making Garlic Powder in the Food Processor

I did weigh the dried garlic before grinding it. The three pounds or 48 ounces that I started with was reduced to 22 ounces or just under half the weight that it started at. It took several minutes of grinding in the food processor to get it to a powdered texture, and while some of it was such a fine powder that it was seeping out of the food processor and looked like smoke, there were still a few small chunks in it as well.

I divided it into ball jars. The 8oz or 1 cup size jars held 5 ounces of garlic powder.

It is somewhat surprising, consider the strong smell that was emitted during the process, that the flavor was not lost during the process. The garlic powder seems to have the same strong and wonderful flavor as our fresh garlic. While my husband taste-tested it by eating some off a spoon, I decided to test it by making my dill-garlic dip. We agreed, the flavor is superb!

I have given my husband a heads-up that I intend to do another batch or two since I have more fresh garlic than we will use before it goes bad. Now my dilemma is whether to cross “dehydrate garlic” off of my to-do list, or leave it until I am all done.

The Garlic Smell

January 6, 2016garlic, Garlic tipscoffee uses, Garlic smellruthsoaper

While the smell of garlic may be appetizing even mouth-watering when it’s cooking into a pot of spaghetti sauce, baking into a piece of garlic bread, or made into a dip, there are times when the smell of garlic is, to say the least, a nuisance and can even be repugnant.

For years I’ve struggled with finding storage containers that are appropriate for storing foods with a heavy garlic smell (ditto for onion). When food with this strong smell are stored in plastic containers the smell is next to impossible to get out, and thus can be transferred to whatever is next stored in the container. I have adopted two rules for storing foods with heavy garlic or onion smell 1)store these foods in disposable containers, or 2) do not save leftovers.

A few days ago I broke my own rules and saved some (heavy on the garlic) clam sauce in a plastic container (one that I really didn’t want to throw away). Yesterday, after I emptied the container, I attempted to clean it. While it looked clean the garlic odor lingered in the bowl. In the past I have tried soaking plastic bowls in vinegar or lemon juice to get rid of the garlic smell, I’ve also tried scrubbing the plastic with baking soda, and combining the baking soda with vinegar to get rid of it, all to no avail.

Yesterday, after I realized my mistake, I remembered reading about, and then blogging about, cooks who use coffee soap to wash the smell of garlic from their hands, https://donteatitsoap.com/2015/12/28/garlic-kitchen-tools-pros-and-cons/ I thought maybe coffee would work in this instance. I took the used coffee grounds from the morning, which were still on the top in the compost bucket, and put some in the bowl. I filled the bowl with hot water, put the lid on, I shook the bowl up, then let it sit for 10 minutes. When I opened the bowl and poured the coffee and grounds down the disposal, the garlic smell was replaced by a coffee smell. I washed the bowl with dish soap and hot water and all odors were gone.

I do not know if all of these steps were necessary. It is possible that soaking the bowl with brewed coffee (no grounds) would have removed the odor, or that a simple scrubbing with a few coffee grounds would have done the trick, and I will probably experiment with these options in the future. I just thought I would share with you the method that did work.

Now that I have discovered this trick I’m wondering if drinking coffee is the solution to garlic breath.

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