Many of my garden friends refer to me as The Garlic Lady. I’ve been growing garlic since 1997.
That year, we bought a house with several acres of land in eastern Connecticut and we spent our weekends exploring that part of the world. One weekend, we stumbled on the Pawcatuck Garlic Festival and there we met Wayne Hansen of Wayne’s Organic Farm in Oneco, Connecticut. Wayne was one of the first certified organic gardeners in Connecticut and he was a garlic evangelist. He sold me some seed garlic and gave me detailed growing instructions. I was still a novice gardener at that point, but I was an avid cook and I used a heck of lot of garlic so I was happy to try growing my own. The next summer, when I harvested my first crop, I was hooked.
As Wayne instructed, I saved the best looking bulbs for seed and replanted the next fall. I’ve been doing the same thing ever since. This year, I harvested about 150 heads—they are all descendants of the bulbs Wayne sold me in 1997. Nine years ago, we moved to Pennsylvania. I kept my garlic going by giving my seed garlic to my niece’s husband here in PA. He planted it in his garden and we split the harvest. By that fall, I had a plot in the community garden here and I was able to replant my own garlic.
Now, I am a garlic evangelist too. My garlic is growing all over our community garden. I give away seed garlic, along with my own detailed instructions, every fall to at least eight people. I get such a kick out of walking around and seeing it growing in other people’s gardens. This summer, I happened to be in the garden when one of last year’s recipients was about to harvest her garlic for the first time. She asked me to dig up the first one so she could see how I do it. That bulb was a beauty. The others were equally gorgeous. The best part for me, though, was seeing how excited she was about her garlic. My granddaughter will be planting my garlic in her garden in Maine this fall. That makes my heart smile.
Anyway, enough chatter! How about some pics?
I plant my garlic in October and November. It’s the last garden task for the season.
In a few weeks, the whole process will start again. I’m already looking forward to it.
I know many of you are accomplished garlic growers yourselves but I thought you might enjoy a little walk through my process.
So, what’s happening with all of you?