I harvested all the Porcelains on Sunday before the massive thunderstorm. You know, the t’storm that made all the corn smash to the ground and dropped at least 16mm on us? Ya, that one. Mary told me she spent 4 hours putting the corn back upright and hilling the wet soil up around them. I was very happy that I had the Porcelains hanging but not very happy that the rest were still in the ground b/c watching all that rain fall I knew that there would be so much soil on them when I did dig them out. As the forecast seemed to indicate that there would only be a couple of days in between rain events, I knew I couldn’t wait a long time to let them dry out more.
Third year Music out of the ground.
Persian Star and Jim’s (which I believe is actually Music) sitting in the shade waiting to be transported to the barn for hanging.
I was going to wait until tomorrow morning to dig the rest but Mary returned my phone call at 2pm today to say that yes, one bunch had fallen down. I thought a bunch meant a whole string-full so I figured I’d better get out there and put them back up. Midday sun is not the ideal time to start work, but that’s the time she called me back, so that’s the time I went out. When I got there it was just 5 plants that had come unravelled from the bottom of one string. No harm done. With the forecast calling for 30% chance of rain and a possible t’storm tomorrow evening, I thought I’d better try to lift the rest of the garlic and see what was what. Well, it is exactly as I suspected…massive chunks of soil came up with the garlic. I swear some of them weighed 2 or 3 lbs as I was pulling them from the Earth. (I have the sore back to prove it! 😉 ) It was about 400C this afternoon in that field. Seriously. Don’t believe me? OK, you’re right. It was around 28C/33C humidex. At 8pm it was 23/30C…that humidity is killin’ me!
This morning I had done my laundry and hung it on the line. It was taking what I thought was ages to dry. Then the Mary call, so I took my gardening clothes off the line still damp and put them in the car and off I went. When I got out there at 2:30 I put them on top of the Music that was still in the ground and started working in the clothes I had on – shorts and a burgundy t-shirt. It became very apparent very quickly that the t-shirt was going to have to go. On went the men’s linen shirt I use. The cuffs were still a bit damp, but no worries. About 10 mins later, I was in the trees stripped down and changing into my khaki gardening pants. Luckily this time no mosquito bit my butt. By this time I had realized that it didn’t matter if they were damp or not b/c I was sweating so much that the shirt was now wetter than when I’d put it on 10 mins previously. And this continued the entire time I dug. At one point I took a 10 min break in the shade of the trees, hiked my shirt up as far as it could go, knotted it, put my arms out 90 degrees from my body and turned in circles as fast as I could. This felt very good except for the dizzy part. If it wasn’t for Mary and the possibility that someone else might come by, I would have stripped right down to nakedness. Yes, I would have! Mary was coming out of her garden where she was harvesting cabbage, massive cabbage I might add, and yelled out, “That’s one way to get cool! Phew, I think I’m done! Have you ever seen cabbage leaves this big (holds up a leaf that, no kidding, was as big as 3 of her heads)? Oh me god!” I don’t actually think I had ever seen a cabbage leaf that large. After a few more circles, I went back to digging.
So this is what I’ve done: I’ve dug up all the garlic and left it in the field so that hopefully the soil surrounding the roots will dry out somewhat overnight. I have never done this before, so I hope it’s alright and the deer, racoon, and whatever else don’t like garlic. The deer sure like my beans. The sun was on its decent when I left the farm, so I am sure the garlic won’t get sunburnt and I will be out there before it gets too high in the sky tomorrow to do the de-dirting and hanging. I also plan on rigging up my solar panel and fan that I had out at the market garden to facilitate air movement in the barn. So, another hot day is on tap for tomorrow. If only that rain had waited one more day…or I had started one day earlier. Shoot.
The garlic looks good though. The Kostyn’s Red Russian looks amazing as does the German Red. Some of “Dad’s” and Baba Franchuk’s also look great. I am also impressed with the new Porcelains: Melody and Yugoslavian. They grew into pretty nice sized bulbs in only 3 years’ time. On par with Music for sure. The others I mentioned though, I think they are bigger and definitely more purple. I daresay they are beautiful! You will be getting some of each this year, I think.
I wanted to take a photo of all the garlic dug up, really I did, but to be honest I did not have the energy to walk to the car, get my camera and walk back to take the photo. Twice I had sweat going down my sunglasses and it seemed like finding a dry spot on my shirt to wipe it with was getting harder and harder to find! If you actually do get a cold from going from hot to air conditioning, I will have one very shortly b/c I had the a/c full blast in the car on the way home. I came home and into the merciful shower I went. It felt so good. Thank god for leftovers and corn on the cob. I’m actually too tired to write this, so I’ve done well. The dishes and the laundry on the line (likely still damp…ha!) will have to wait b/c I have to go set the slug traps. Good night, sweet dreams! 🙂
Good Food from Prairie Roots 