Garlic

Scott has started to plant garlic in the field north of the cottage. Not knowing which variety of garlic will perform well in our soil, he has selected three different varieties, all of which are reported to be very cold hardy and are of the hardneck type. Softneck varieties of garlic are the ones which are most commonly found in supermarkets. The hardneck varieties have a rigid stem, called a scape, that coils from the top of the garlic and has bulbils growing from it. Bulbils look like mini bulbs and can be cut off the top of the garlic and eaten or replanted.

The three varieties of garlic being planted are German Extra Hardy, Siberian, and Chrysalis Purple. A total of 65 pounds of seed garlic will be planted and if all goes well, we should have a total yield of 300-350 pounds of garlic around mid-July. The garlic will then go through a curing process of about 3 weeks.

North of Cottage field planted with garlic seed.
There will be four 100-foot rows of each garlic variety.

Lettuce!

The first bed that was planted with the fall lettuce mix in early September produced its first harvest this week. You can buy some at the Gore Place farm stand, yum!

Lettuce 10.2.09

The second lettuce garden bed was planted two weeks later. Since the weather has gotten cooler, Scott built a greenhouse over the lettuce to keep the plants warm. The incoming heat from the sun warms the plants and soil inside the structure faster than heat can escape. We can extend the growing season a bit more this way.

Lettuce garden bed #2 9.25.09

Lettuce greenhouse 10.2.09

Inside the lettuce greenhouse 10.2.09