Early Summer Harvest

Hullo!! I was planning to spend a relaxing day in my lawn chair today - it is sooo hot out! But apparently "we" had other plans. I wasn't beary eager for this...

But Daisy Dog whispered that there might be something at the end of all this... for me!

OK... so we are harvesting garlic today... which can be a tricky thing.

You need to figure out when it is ready... the bottom third of the leaves should be wilting... like these.

And a couple of the top ones should be wilting... but not all the leaves! The leaves connect to the paper layers that cover the cloves... so you need to have some green leaves.

You also shouldn't water for about a week or two before you harvest. We had rain about a week before... so this should be good.

Then I got to supervise the digging up of the bulbs...

You need a shovel...

And you get under the bulb area...

And poof!! There it is!

They sure have long roots! You can brush off some of the dirt but don't wash them... and be careful with brushing as the bulbs are beary senstivie at the moment... And apparently they can get sunburned too...

So don't leave them lying out in the sun... unless you are taking a picture with a stuffie... of course!

The bulbs need to be tied up and cured for a while before they will be ready. Bundles of 8-10 is good... and in an airy place. Our pal Richard suggested the shed...

They sure smell garlicky!

There we go... a bundle of garlic!

I can't wait to cook with these!

And... surprise... we had accidental garlic too! Last November, before we got our compost bin up and running, we put the kitchen scraps into the flower garden and... this spring there were some strange bulbish looking things which wilted around the same time as the real garlic. Sure enough... some of the kitchen scrap garlics planted themselves!!

Next... we harvested some of the lavender...

And thinned the beets... these sure are cute.

And picked sweet peas - they are so sweet smelling!

Oh... and harvested some peas, shucked them and then blanched them and put them in the freezer...

I am a beary tired bear after all that supervising!! Luckily Mama had a honey drink for me! Whew... Now I can sit back and put up my heels and enjoy the evening.