Harvest, continued

The forecast has not changed from what they have been saying all along – still predicting “a few t’storms” tonight…it looks like Morden is currently getting hit with a “red” t’storm on the radar which means it’s REALLY coming down. That’s what colour the one we got on Sunday was. Red. Red alert. You get it.

So, with that in mind I knew I had to get to the farm and get that garlic hung up asap. When I got there, all was right with it. As I suspected, it’s not a major menu item for the wildlife. Also, no vampire sightings on John’s wildlife cams 🙂 The weather was perfect – overcast with a slight breeze until about 1 when it started to become really muggy again, as opposed to a little bit muggy. I had all the garlic ‘field cleaned’ in about 3 hours and transported it all to the barn where I put up extra rods through the roof to act as hangers for the garlic. This one plastic rod, well I could NOT get that thing to go past the main beam of the barn. I struggled with it for about 10 mins, sweat rolling down my…everything, when John came along to do some repairs on the lawn mower (he works a split shift) and announced that there were big black clouds in the distance. He pretty easily put the plastic tubing along the roof for me. I said to him, “Had I known you were coming out I wouldn’t have fought with that for 10 mins!” By this time it had been 4.5 hours since breakfast and 2.5 hours since my banana. I underestimated the time it would take me to do the things i had to do at the farm today, so didn’t take a lunch as I thought I’d be home by 1. Lunch tasted VERY good at 4pm, I tell ya!! Very good.

All the garlic ready to be ‘field cleaned’

I said there were clumps of soil. 😦

There are still a few left – they are growing bulbils.

All gone.

Here is some of the garlic. I forgot to take a photo before I hung some. I wanted to get the old truck in there.

All hung!

With all the wet weather coming, who knows how long this is going to take to dry…

Here are a couple other photos from the field:

Remember I said John accidentally ran into my bean trellis? Dead pinto beans. 😦

A bit of water fell on Sunday, yes. Where this soil is compacted it really shows its clay content’s characteristics. You can see a deer visited. They do not follow “rows.”

And so now we wait for the garlic to dry and cure. Everything seemed to take so much longer than last year. I had to keep reminding myself that that was because everything actually came up this year!! Had I started a day earlier things would have been easier, but what’s done is done! 🙂

Can’t wait to see how they look all dried and cleaned!! Winnipeg peeps, I am aiming for a September 15th delivery date as I have an app’t in there that day.

An important note: I have not increased my prices since before gas was under $1/L but the time has come. It simply costs more to get to the farm and to deliver the garlic now. As well, electricity is more (to irrigate the bulbil nursery), the straw went up in price, etc. All existing orders will be at the price I quoted you as I’m a person whose word is true.

Thanks for your support!