Garlic!!!

The crew harvested garlic today for the CSA share tomorrow.  This is fresh-from-the-ground garlic, not the same creature as your cured garlic.  The garlic you buy in the store has been dried in a controlled setting for several weeks.  Curing garlic allows the outside layers to dry as a protective layer and concentrates the flavor of the bulbs. You may have seen or heard of garlic braids as a way to decorate while curing.  Braiding is done with soft neck garlic varieties;  ours are hard neck.  When you bring cured garlic home from the store, it will keep for a long time before showing signs of mold or decay.   We will be curing many bulbs ourselves in our corn crib, for you and for planting.  

Fresh garlic (or "immature" or "early season" or "wet") on the other hand, will NOT last as long, so eat it up this week.  If you need to store it for longer than a week, keep it in the fridge isolated from everything else.  You will love the juicy, mild flavor of fresh garlic.  It is harder to peel, but worth the work.    

Puffballs!  This is what happens when you let  garlic scapes go!

Meredith!

Everyone is still sweating like crazy at the Plot.  We DID move our chickens to a nice new location yesterday so they are happier, cooler.  We are preparing for more heat this week, more planting, mulching, etc.  It never stops!  Until October, that is. 

More news-- We are hiring a new intern "Ben," to be added to our crew on Friday.  We will only have him for a few months, but he is very enthusiastic, uprooting from North Carolina.  We regret not hiring him earlier, but it is very difficult to accurately predict the manhours involved in organic vegetable farming.  One of the MANY balancing acts in this business.  Heres' another one:

More carrots and beets and potatoes coming your way, too!  See some of you tomorrow!

-Julia