Garlic Time: Summer CSA ’12 – Week #19

 In CSA Newsletter

garlic, beautiful garlic

While the world around us is changing colors sooner than usual, garlic planting is just on time.  Garlic planting always has a special significance for our family.

Breaking garlic bulbs into the cloves (which are the seeds for the next year’s plants) was what Mike and I did on our first date. When we married a couple of years later, it was garlic bulbs we used as the seat assignments and party favors at our reception. My mother painstakingly tied little tags with names and a table number on each bulb. Fast-forward a few years, and the very first thing Zea and I ever did together at the farm was plant garlic. She was just two weeks old. I carried her on my front and dropped seed ahead of the planters.

Three years have now passed since Zea’s first garlic planting.  And as we celebrated her birthday this past weekend with family and friends, it was garlic breaking time once again. With so many extra hands and a Badgers game AND an Ohio State game (my family hails from Ohio), we couldn’t resist making garlic breaking part of the party.  While Zea and friends made a delightful mess with her new glitter, the sports fans made a mess of dirt and garlic wrappers in the living room.

Breaking garlic bulbs into seed gives the hands and thumbs a workout, but it’s pretty easy on the rest of the body and can be quite enjoyable.  It tends to draw everyone together around a crate and allows a wonderful space for conversation to flow.  With busy hands, sitting around and talking together gains a sense of purpose and togetherness.  For the rest of my life, garlic planting time and Zea’s birthday will go hand in hand. The thought makes me smile.

This morning, Mike, Douglas, and Alex are out with the worker shares planting garlic.  Mike prepped the soil last week, and now in the cloves (or seed) go.  30,000 will be planted in total. To plant the garlic, we use our transplanter to mark the holes and put water down.  People do the rest. The €œdroppers€ drop a seed down on each hole – every 6 inches, 3 rows per bed.  Then the planters follow, pressing each clove, root side down, as far as they can into the ground. Then you cover it over. And voila, all done until next season.

And voila, so are the EO Group A members all done until next season! We thank all of the everyother Group A members for your support this season. We hope you enjoy this last box as much as you did the others. Just a couple of quick notes for this week: keep your sweet potatoes out of the fridge. They will like a cabinet better. And enjoy the sugar dumpling squash; it’s creamy like a delicata.

Take care & enjoy your veggies!  Sincerely, Mike, Cassie, Zea & Edie

In the Box:

  • Bok Choi
  • Butternut Squash
  • Cabbage, Red
  • Carrots
  • Garlic
  • Leek
  • Lettuce, Romaine
  • Spinach
  • Sweet Dumpling Squash

REGs Only

  • Red Potatoes

EOs Only

  • Delicata Squash
  • Sweet Potatoes

This Week’s Recipes:

Summer Week #19:  Wednesday, October 10th ” Everyother Group A