GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

Tag: garlic

It’s Time For Garlic Scapes – GF Radio 345

Rick and Eric talk about harvesting garlic scapes and what to do with them on this episode of GardenFork Radio. Scapes can be found in the farmers market and some food stores right now. They are the flower of the garlic plant, and when growing garlic, you want all the energy going into the bulb of the plant, so we harvest the immature flowers.

Here are some of our garlic scape videos: https://gardenfork.tv/tag/garlic-scapes

Beekeeping comes up as always this time of year. Rick captured a honeybee swarm the easy way, here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwpsyph9XOQ

One of Eric’s hives swarmed and flew off, ignoring the fine bait hives he had put up. The bees remaining in the hive were re-queened yesterday. Usually when a hive swarms, the old queen flies off and leaves several queen eggs, so you can requeen your hive by putting in a new queen and removing those growing queen eggs.

Talking about how to use a cast iron dutch oven comes up, as Eric posted a video about using a dutch oven to bake cake outdoors.
A neat camping recipe or just cooking outdoors in your yard: https://gardenfork.tv/bake-a-cake-outdoor-cooking-dutch-oven-gf-video

Eric tells of being an assistant plumber helping to install a new boiler, which was quite a bit of work to do. Lots of running to get stuff for the plumber.

And how to use a jackhammer to open a hole in a cement floor is not as hard as one would think. For the sump pump install, we had to open up the floor, and the jackhammer was very pinpoint in breaking up the cement just where we pointed the jackhammer, and not spider-cracking the cement floor. a good thing. We rented a 35 pound medium duty jackhammer from the local home improvement store for 4 hours, and it was ample time to open up the hole we had to do. The hard part was hand digging the hole, removing the dirt. Eric found that loosening the dirt, and then using the shop vac to suck up the dirt worked pretty good. You could also use a quart yogurt container to scoop it out.

A wave of tree pollen came over Eric’s yard last weekeknd, huge release of white pine pollen so thick you could see a green cloud in the yard. Thanks to modern over the counter allergy meds, we made it through the weekend. Pollen happens.

June 22, 2014
How To Grow Garlic, It’s Not Rocket Science – GF Video
Watch our video on how to grow garlic, then go out and plant your garlic! There are a few keys things that we go over below.

Wondering how to grow garlic?

Its not rocket science, as even Eric can grow garlic. Its is easy to do, garlic does not have many diseases or pests, and its pretty low maintenance. Our how to plant garlic video steps you through the process.

Couple of key things to keep in mind:
- For most northern climates, you plant garlic in the fall
- Order seed garlic as early as you can, most garlic growers sell out.
- I don’t mulch my garlic bed, you can if you want.
- The garlic may start to grow in the fall, that’s ok.
- And learn how to harvest and how to cook garlic scapes in this video here.
You can buy seed garlic, which is basically the largest bulbs of a particular strain of garlic from Filaree Farm, you can also find them at your local farmers market. Buy the largest, healthiest bulbs the farmer has.

Garlic is broken down into a few varieties, Rocambole, Purple Strip, Porcelain, Artichoke, Silverskin, and a bunch more. We plant hardneck garlic here in New England, softneck Italian style garlic does not do well here.

Maybe one of your neighbors already grows garlic and you can get a few heads of garlic from them to plant. I’ve heard stories of families who have brought garlic over from Russia or Poland, and keep the variety going in the backyard. Getting garlic from the local farmers market means those particular bulbs will grow well in your area, maybe ask the farmer, I’m willing to bet they’ll talk all you want about growing garlic.

How To Grow Garlic, Start With Soil Prep:

First of all, you can grow garlic in regular garden soil, nothing special needs to be done. Plant in the fall, before frost, when the leaves are starting to drop off the trees, rather than the spring. Break apart the cloves a day early, if possible, and let them dry a bit. The flat end of the clove goes into the bottom of the hole. Space the garlic about 6″ apart in rows 12″ apart.

It is possible to plant garlic in the spring, but the yield will be much lower. I have never done it.

Mulching your garlic is a personal think. I don’t think its necessary, and i’m all about simple.

The garlic may sprout before winter, this is OK. Just leave it alone. The grow tip will wilt in the snow, and then the plant will start to grow again in the spring.

In late winter, this same growth and wilting from cold weather may happen again, its OK. The weather will warm and the garlic will kick in soon enough. Let the plants grow, however harvest the scapes in early summer, and then harvest the garlic plants when the stalks start to go brown at the base.

What have been your experiences with growing and cooking with garlic? Let us know below, be great to hear from people!
October 25, 2011
Chicago Italian Beef, that’s ours… : GardenFork Radio

This week: weather is the #2 search term, Brooklyn tornadoes, Chicago Italian beef, honeybees, alternators, cooking politeness, food photography, dog photography, filareefarm.com, localharvest.org, and Eric on driving the Ford Escape Hybrid

photo by WallyG

September 23, 2010