Today, I am 5 weeks out from my arm injury, and I was feeling down a bit. I have watched my gardens barely treading water. We have kept them alive by watering them, but I can’t weed them or do any maintenance work. It is frustrating. Especially when I have had to watch rabbits destroy some of my crops and not be able to fix the fencing with only one functioning arm. I need to put down chicken wire 18″ up and 18″ out. But that won’t be this year. I can do it this coming winter when everything has died back. Maybe the other frustration is that I discovered field rat tunnels along the orchard bed, and they got in and dug up multiple artichoke plants from seeds I had grown. It’s crushing to watch it happen. So it’s not my year. I can accept that.
Add in our very cold and wet spring and early summer. It’s enough to make you want to quit farming and move into a condo.
But last week, I had a victory in all the mess. And it renewed my love of growing. It let me get past my sadness and anger over this summer.
We started pulling the garlic beds. It was time. With our youngest son’s help, we pulled it before a minor heat wave appeared.
It’s a nice color and size. There were no worm or insect issues, and the majority of the bulbs popped out without stem breakage.
Thank you, nature. I needed that boost. For a moment, I felt that things were OK out there. I had many bulbs of garlic come out this big.
I just felt….that at lest I was getting one good harvest this year!
Alistaire was a huge help. He hauled the harvest to where we decided to cure it, cleaned it up, and laid it out to dry. We will go up next week to trim it and pretty it up.
I have a bunch of bulbs in the house and have been cooking with them. It’s a mild but intensely flavored garlic. I have grown this variety that another gardening friend sold me five years ago. It’s one for Whidbey Island growing and does well in our microclimate.
We will go through the harvest and pick the best way to keep back for this fall’s planting. November will be here before I know it.
~Sarah