Our 2009 Garlic Crop is in the ground.
Growing garlic! It's been one of the most enjoyable adventures at Elmswood Farm - and the feedback has been marvellous.
Clearly I wasn't alone in disliking the inferior imports!
This year a group of garlic growers met in Waikerie (a few hours north of Adelaide on the Murray River) to discuss the finer points of growing garlic and it was good to meet the few scattered farmers across the nation learning to grow this important crop.
For Elmswood and Australia this is just the beginning. The world has hundreds of different garlics and we’ve only tested a few. So for starters there’s excitement about growing new varieties. Improving biodiversity matters at Elmswood, to ensure genetic security in the future, so diversifying our garlic is all important.
And we’ve been experimenting with different growing techniques. This year we’ve mulched one furrow quite thickly to see if weed management is improved and soil moisture maintained.
We’ve erected a new area to dry/cure the garlic and our new tractor is a big help. After 24 years of using second hand old tractors we traded in two and bought a new one.
We don’t have enough places to hang our garlic for personal use, so suddenly there are hooks going up everywhere around the homestead so we can dangle some more bunches.
Meanwhile I'm reading dozens of books on garlic and trying many new garlic recipes. I don't have any 'fresh' garlic left in my kitchen ( all the bulbs have sprouted) but I'm still using it in all my recipes. The flavour isn't anywhere near as rich and complex as fresh, but it's good enough for winter casseroles and salad dressings.
And I'm very pleased to say my daughter Aurora is growing her own garlic crop this year which she plans to sell at farmer's markets in Sydney in November after her HSC exams. More on that later.
