Frosty the Halloween Man

We awoke this morning to the first killing frost of the season. 28 degrees F at 8:00 and a thick layer of frost on the ground. I neglected to get the garlic out yesterday. I hope I'm not too late.

Gar-Link

I love garlic. So much so that my wife has named me "Gar-Link" when I eat a lot of it. My favorite is in a hummus recipe that I make about once a month and share with my next door neighbor who is also can't get it strong enough. I make two versions, the one for me and to share and another for my family.

Anyway, today begins the garlic planting season. I ordered two kinds, both hardneck varieties, to plant this year. I wanted to have something from the garden that you can't get at the grocery so I went to Gourmet Garlic Gardens and picked out a variety from the Porcelain and Rocambole families. Bob, the owner and self-proclaimed "Garlicmeister", called before shipping to say that the Porcelain "Metechi" that I had chosen didn't do well enough to ship this year and he suggested substituting another similar one called "Georgia Fire". They're all new to me so I agreed. The Rocambole that I got is "Spanish Roja". I was really pleased with the size of the cloves and it looks like Bob did me right. We'll see next summer.

Today, I followed the instructions to separate the cloves and soak overnight in water with baking soda. I don't have any liquid seaweed but that would also be good, says the directions from Bob. Planting is tomorrow, about a week later than I planted last year but with all the warm weather and drought, I'd say I'm ok for waiting, maybe even better. I don't want it to blow all the energy above ground before the chill hits and have little left over to survive the winter.