Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

October/November 2005
Plant now for Great Garlic
By Barbara Pleasant
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2005-10-01/Plant-now-for-Gr
eat-Garlic.aspx
Here are 42 tips from six experts to help you grow the best crop

Garlic tastes wonderful, whether you mince it for salsa, pure it for pesto,
bake whole bulbs until the flesh is soft enough to spread on bread, or
steam a few cloves in the same pot with potatoes.

The perfect time to plant this crop A(llium sati)vuims late fall, a fitting
last hurrah for the gardening year. Garlic does best in soil rich in
organic matter; it also needs full sun and regular watering during the
spring -sea son. In the summer, when half of its leaves turn brown, you can
pull up the bulbs and treat yourself to the besttasting garlic you ve ever
eaten, with a crisp texture unique to fresh, homegrown garlic.

There are two main garlic types: softnecks, such as artichoke, Creole,
Asiatic and turban varieties; and more cold-hardy hardnecks, represented by
porcelain, purple stripes and rocambole types. (See The Language of Garlic,
Page 74, for the characteristics of each type, including the climates in
which they grow best and how well they keep through the winter.) Climate
plays an important role in the survival quality of garlic, which a-lso is a
prisingly responsive crop. If you save and replant the best cloves from
your garden-grown garlic, it will show its satisfaction with the particular
growing conditions in your garden by improving in quality with each passing
season.

Where should you start and what should you expect? The garlic grower s art
varies from one climate to another, but these six organic growers offer
expert advice for every region.
NORTHWEST: FILAREE FARM

Since 1977, Filaree Farm in north-central Washington has been a pioneer in
collecting, growing and selling little-known strains of gourmet garlic. All
hundr-ed-plus va rieties grown at Filaree Farm are planted at the end of
September, in soil that has been kept in alfalfa and other cover crops for
seven years between garlic plantings.
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For Northwest gardeners-, own er Watershine Woods recommends turban
varieties such as Portuguese because they come in early, and marbled purple
stripes because they are big plants with beautiful bulbs that have big
cloves.

It's best to start with a small plot, Woods says, so you can make your
mistakes on a small scale. It s also important to handle the bulbs
carefully when you harvest them. Her advice is to treat the bulbs like
cracked eggs.

Woods says she likes to steam garlic by adding peeled cloves to potatoes or
rice during the last 3 minutes of cooking time. - It will soft en and you
can eat it whole or mash it up, she says. Sh-e also en joys making her own
garlic powder.
UPPER MIDWEST:
GIRARDIN GOURMET GARDENS

Minnesotan Joel Girardin grows more than 150 varieties in four row beds, in
which he rotates garlic with heirloom tomatoes, squash and melons. Twelve
years ago, Girardin became interested in growing garlic after trying
strains grown by Seed Savers Exchange members. He found little information
on how it was done in Minnesota, so he started experimenting. He says
hardnecks porcelain types such as Georgian Crystal and Music, as well as
various purple stripes perform best in his area. Before planting garlic in
early October, Girardin fertilizes his beds with organic fertilizer made
from poultry manure.

For big bulbs, he spaces cloves 6 inches apart. He also plants whole bulbs,
which grow into two delicious spring crops greens and scallions.

When the tops are 4 inches to 6 inches tall, they can be cut off and used
in salads, like garlic chives, he says. When the tops grow back to 12
inches tall, we dig the whole bulb, break it apart and have garlic
scallions, which are lik-e onion scal lions, with a white bulb and green
top, and a nice garlic taste.

He and his wife also love baked garlic, made by lopping off the tops from
-several ma ture bulbs (so the tips of the cloves are exposed), drizzling
them with olive oil and then roastin-g them un til soft. Girardin mixes the
roasted garlic warm from the oven -with a lit tle mayonnaise and spreads it
on toast.
NORTHEAST:
G & H GARLIC FARM

James Gunderson has been growing garlic for five years in Littleton, N.H.
He says it took three years to develop strains that do well in his area s
cold clay and to improve his soil with green manure crops.

You really need a lo-t of or ganic matter in the soil, because garlic needs
room to breathe, he says. At G & H Garlic Farm, Gunderson rotates three
years of cover crops with each c-rop of gar lic. Garlic s need for great
soil a good thing to learn when you have only 1 or 2 pounds in the ground,
but even while you- re learn ing, garlic is an enjoyable crop to grow
because while it s in the ground, you don t have to attend to it as much as
other garden crops.

Gunderson plants his garlic in early October and covers it with 6 to 8
inches of wheat straw. The straw is essential to keep the frost from
pushing the bulbs out of the ground, he says. Gunderson recommends hardneck
Spanish Roja rocambole and softneck Asian Tempest Asiatic, as well as
Georgian Crys-tal porce lain for sausage making to growers in his region.

All garlic grown in cold climates is likely to be quite spicy, Gunderson
says, because the colder the winter, the spicier the garlic. The hardneck
types that grow well in New Hampshire don t store well, so Gunderson s
wife, Kim, who is Korean by birth, has refin-ed a pro cedure for pickling
raw garlic in soy sauce, which Gunderson says he can eat by the bowlful.
(Go to www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/pickle.html find pickled garlic
recipes.)
CENTRAL:
BOBBA-MIKE S GOURMET GARLIC

Bob Zimmerman and Wendy Douglas wait for October s full moon to plant their
garlic at Bobba-Mike s in Orrville, Ohio. They na-me sever al hardnecks as
regional standouts: Music porcelain because it is so cold hardy; Romanian
Red - porce lain for its incredible pungent flavor; and Chesnok Red purple
stripe for roasting or adding to pasta dishes. Zimmerman also recommends
Georgian Fire porcelain -as an ex cellent choice for salsas and other
Mexican dishes.

Zimmerman says to make sure you have a soil test done -and ap propriately
amend the soil. Garlic likes a pH (acidity level) of 6.5 to 7, and the soil
should be ri-ch in or ganic matter. We use composted leaves and chicken
manure, he says. Zimmerman and Douglas plant their garlic 3 inches deep in
rows 5 inches apart. After the garlic is harvested in midsummer, a quick
crop of buckwheat is sown in its place.

They say it s hard to go wrong if you start with a locally -adapted va
riety and begin with a sm-all planti ng: Growing garlic is easy, and we
think every backyard gardener should give it a try. Zimmerman and Douglas
say they love to eat it with fresh homegrown tomatoes, basil, olive oil and
a little salt black pepper.

SOUTHEAST:
CORNERSTONE GARLIC FARM

Natalie Foster says sof-tneck arti choke garlics, planted from mid- October
to mid-November, are the best varieties at Cornerstone, in North Carolina s
wacky winter and spring conditions. Both Inchelium Red and Lorz Italian
prosper in changeable weather, store for months and are great for braiding.
Although Music porcelain often doesn t get very big, Foster says the
easy-to-peel cloves are packed with big flavor, and you- get won derful
scapes to eat in the spring. She loves eating the scapes either raw, baked
or roasted.

In search of more good scape producers for her climate, Foster says she is
encouraged by- the per formance of various Asiat-ics and tur bans, which
she has been growing for the past two years. She mulches her garlic with
chopped leaves, mostly for weed suppression, but in her humid climate,
harvesting garlic at the right time is the -biggest chal lenge. Harvest
garlic when the leaves are no more than 40 percent to 50 percent brown, and
try to get it when the soil is dry, she says. Because curing garlic is
difficult in humid conditions, Foster closely trims the roots and shakes
off dirt from freshly dug garlic, but never washes it. We also have found
that garlic cures best when the stalks are cut back to 2 to 4 inches,
especially with hardnecks. Foster also highly recommends mild-tasting
elephant garliAc. (ampelopras)u,m which is really a leek, because it s such
a prolific grower, producin-g 4-inch-di ameter bulbs that often weigh 8
ounces or more. I stuff my Thanksgiving turkey with elephant garlic, and my
guests don t know I used garlic. They just know my turkey is great, she
says.
SOUTHWEST:
GOURMET GARLIC GARDENS

Bob Anderson began growing garlic in Bangs, Texas, in 1993, after his wife,
Merridee McClatchy, bought him a copy of Ron Engeland’s Growing Great
Garlic. Since then, he’s found that the best garlics for his area include
‘Burgundy’ and other Creoles; marbled purple stripes such as
‘Metechi’ and ‘Siberian;’ and ‘Red Toch’ artichoke?—?all
varieties with good tolerance of Texas’ intense sun.

“The worst problem we can have is an early heat spell,” Anderson says.
“Not every garlic reacts the same way to adverse circumstances. In any
given year, some will flourish and others won’t do as well. Then, the
next year, they will change places.” In years when grasshoppers are
especially bad, Anderson has found that covers made from aluminum window
screening are the only thing that will slow the ’hoppers down.

To prevent fungal diseases, Anderson always follows garlic with brassicas.
>From there, he rotates to legumes and then to either nightshades or okra.
“Garlic evolved in some pretty sparse turf, but it still needs good soil
balance, with good mineral content,” he says. No matter where you live,
or what kind of garlic you grow, Anderson says freshly harvested homegrown
garlic is crisp, juicy and delicious.?
The Language of Garlic

Garlic includes two subspecies softneck and har-dneck. Many subdi visions
and some crossovers exist between these t-wo groups. In the in terest of
practical simplicity, we have divided each subspecies into three primary
groups.
SOFTNECK TYPES (ALLIUM SATIVUM SATIVUM)

• Artichokaensd silverskairnes the familiar grocery store garlic. Large
bulbs are composed of 12 to 20 cloves, with the largest cloves on the
outside of the bulbs. Most don t send up seed scapes, though a few
sometimes do. Cured bulbs store up to a year and are great for braiding.
Artichokes grow best in mild winter areas.

• Creoleshave fewer, larger cloves, with deep burgundy or silver skins.
Their flavor is full-bodied and moderately spic-y. The plants often pro
duce weak scapes, and the bulbs store well. Creoles grow best where winters
are mild and summers are hot.

• Asiatiacnsd turbanasre considered softnecks, though they often develop
a scape typical of hardnecks but weaker in structure. Early maturing with a
uniquely sweet and hot flavor, these must be harvested promptly and have a
short storage life. adapt to a wide range of climates.
HARDNECK TYPES (ALLIUM SATIVUM OPHIOSCORODON )

• Porcelaivnarieties, sometimes called continentals, have thick,
parchmentlike wrappers covering four to six large cloves with complex
flavors that hold up well when cooked. Plants develop curled scapes. Mature
bulbs store better than rocamboles. Porcelains grow best in cold climates.

• Purple stridpeevselop curled scapes and eight to 12 medium-sized
cloves, with purple stripes and blotches on clove skins and wrappers. Easy
to peel and great for baking, purple stripes longer than rocamboles. They
grow best in cold climates.

Rocamboles come in a variety of colors; all send up double-looped scapes.
Famed for their strong, rich flavor, rocamboles produce six to 11 cloves
that are easy to peel but do not store well. They grow best in climates
with cold winters and cool springs.
Make Garlic Powder

When great garlic begins to go soft in storage, it s time to make garlic
powder. cloves, cut them into thin slices and then dry them in a skillet in
a 150-degree turning often. Grind the dried slices in a blender, and then
sift the material strainer to separate the chunks (great for pizza) from
the finer powder, which use on any food that can benefit from a
concentrated shot of garlic flavor. powder in airtight jars in a cool
place, or freeze for long-term Storage.
Buying the Best Bulbs

WATCH OUT FOR WHITE ROT

White rot, causSecdl ebryo tium cepi,voirsu ma garlic disease affecting
-mostly large mercial growers on the West Coast. Once introduced into a
field, the white may survive for 20 to 30 years.

Unlike potatoes, there are no standards or certification processes for
garlic Experts recommend buying your initial seed stock from a small local
grower. ask hard questions first of whoever you are buying from about any
disease be picky about what you receive, says Dorene Pasekoff, a longtime
organic in Pennsylvania. Inspect the bulbs when you receive them. If they
look rotten the grower know and reject them. White rot symptoms include
white, cottony the clove cover and poppy seed-sized black marks on and in
the bulb.
GARLIC SOURCES

Bobba-Mike s Gourmet Garlic
Orrville, Ohio
(330) 855-1141
www.garlicfarm.com

Cornerstone Garlic Farm
Reidsville, N.C.
(336) 349-5106

Filaree Farm
Okanogan, Wash.
(509) 422-6940
www.filareefarm.com

G & H Garlic Farm
Littleton, N.H.
(603) 444-5805
www.gandhgarlicfarm.com

Girardin Gourmet Gardens
Randolph, Minn.
(507) 263-5897

Gourmet Garlic Gardens
Bangs, Texas
(866) 348-3049
www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com

Seed Savers Exchange
Decorah, Iowa
www.seedsavers.org
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paul tradingpost@lobo.net