Garlic is one of our favorite ingredients and is used and consumed daily.
When I arrived at my present abode about 5 years ago, the entire garden was one large ball of heavy clay. Even the raised garden beds were totally clay and I cannot understand why people would go to the trouble of creating a raised garden at huge expense and then fill it with clay. Furthermore the garden was covered with plastic ground sheets which in turn was covered by a layer of pebbles. The soil (clay) underneath all of this resembled an old rubbish dump with steel and metal (including old engines) interspersed with glass, rocks, plastic and concrete – this is the 21 st century. I have never seen any viable garden using steel, concrete, stones, glass, plastic and clay as a basis. The total arable area I have for planting food is only about 50 meters square.
Five years later and having turned the “soil” over many times supplementing with at least 800 Kg of lime and a similar amount of gypsum in several applications, as well as many Tons of Quail, Chicken and Rabbit manure and bedding. I also have very active compost bins and worm farms, all of which goes back into the garden. In the process I have recovered and discarded many hundreds of kilograms of metal, concrete, glass, plastic, rocks and other rubbish. Each season the soils were planted to a variety of crops on a rotational basis. Unharvested greens were chopped and worked into the ground as well. For the first two years I have not seen any earthworms or any other soil live, but lately its is noticeable how the soil ecosystem has evolved and became alive and many earthworms are present. I am proud to say that I have not once used any chemicals, purchased fertilisers (Except for gypsum and lime) or used any sprays in achieving this.
BACK TO GARLIC
The garlic patch I have allocated to this crop for the 2019 / 2020 season is about 6 meters square and I have planted it with about 600 cloves of some of my last year’s crop as well as some purchased seed for the sake of variety, which will produce enough to eat, give away and seed for next year.
I preserve garlic in three ways. 1 – Just hang it to dry in clusters or pleated. 2 – Peel and sun dry, then seal in airtight containers. 3 – Peel and put into containers with a little bit of Olive Oil and pasteurise.
Every time I shoot a rabbit or get some as a gift I make stock with the ribs, neck, tails, flanks and all the cut offs, keeping the prime cuts for roasting. Into the stock pot goes a few carrots, onions and celery. Somehow some leeks became too woody for normal use, so this time, I included those as well. Just add water and boil down to about half of the quantity you started off with. I don’t add salt or pepper. Pour the stock off using a pasta strainer or colander and freeze the stock for soup or stews later. What is left are the meat and vegetables. Mrs BYF has been fretting about how to make the best use of these stock ‘leftovers’ . The chickens were never impressed with them and composting after tossing out the meat and bones seemed criminal, so she decided to spend the time and make a rabbit pie. This was delicious, well worth the time picking meat off the bones!
Back Yard Farmer 