Yard To Table

Growing Garlic!

• Trevor Crafts and Ellen Scherer Crafts • Season 2 • Episode 5

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In this look back at our season one episode of "Yard to Table," hosts Ellen and Trevor discuss the easier-than-you-might-think crop to grow in your yard - Garlic! This self-sustaining gem of the garden has been around for literally thousands of years and is an all-star for your home cooking in many surprising ways. Can you say "scape"?

And to see what's happening with Ellen and Trevor at Stonebrook House follow @stonebrookhouse on Instagram today!

Questions? Ideas? Things you need to say? Message us!

Follow Yard to Table on Instagram at @yard_to_table_podcast 🌱🍽️ and see what’s happening with Ellen and Trevor by following @stonebrookhouse. And don't forget to follow, like and leave a review wherever you listen to the show! TY 💙

Trevor:

Oh. Well, hello, Ellen.

Ellen :

Well, hello, Trevor.

Trevor:

We're doing something a little bit different today.

Ellen :

We are. I was in the garden.

Trevor:

Yes, as we often find in the garden, correct? Thats not new news,

Ellen :

and it's a really fun time because the garlic scapes are popping.

Trevor:

Ah, tis scape season it is.

Ellen :

And as I was making, literally, an armful of scape bracelets, yes, I was collecting.

Trevor:

I saw that

Ellen :

I did not have a basket with me. I just

Trevor:

Were not always together. And so sometimes I see the things that you do, but that I post on the on our own Instagram @stonebrookhouse. So I looked on, I got an alert, and it said, look at your phone again. And I said, Okay, I'll just do it this one time, because I don't usually go on my phone at all, and there you were with a Madonna-esque scenario of scapes,

Ellen :

yes, well, as soon as I saw them, I had to start collecting them. So of course, I didn't have a basket, and I thought, well, it was like an immediate scape collection. I'm gonna, I'm gonna rock this garlic scape bracelet, because I could have easily walked back to the, no own it to the potting bench and gotten the basket, but own the bracelet anyway. I loved it. It was fun. It is fun. But, you know, I realized we released an episode on garlic. Yes, we did in our first season. We did that was in the fall, so sort of was late, way later, which helps, which help for future planning.

Trevor:

That's true. But also, we had a lot to say

Ellen :

we did.

Trevor:

It was a lot happening in the beginning,

Ellen :

so I think it would be a good idea to share it with everybody again, now,

Trevor:

sort of in situ, as it were, since this is the time,

Ellen :

it is the season.

Trevor:

And I think this way, if you listen to our episode from season one, you can get all of the tips, and hopefully you planted your garlic. And so you're at the point where you have those scapes right now. I think we had a recipe, and lots of recipes, we'd say, scape salt, we'd all sorts of stuff that we want you guys to all be able to listen to right now, since it's in the season, and then you can enjoy and get ready for all the loveliness that is still only a very short period of time away when it comes to actual garlic harvesting.

Ellen :

Yes, that'll be in July. But, and here's the thing too, you'll be ready for that. You'll be ready and if you aren't growing garlic, no worries. All of your local farmers markets are soon going to be full, inundated with scapes that you can buy and try and make some recipes too. So we think it's a real it's a good idea,

Trevor:

yeah, and we'll be back next week with another episode, a brand new episode of Yard to Table. But for now, yeah, I felt like this was a good time

Ellen :

So for now, enjoy growing the Stinking Rose garlic from season one of Yard to Table.

Trevor:

Well, hi there, Ellen.

Ellen :

Well, hello there, Trevor.

Trevor:

Here we are. Another fantastic episode of yard to table. Exciting. It's super exciting. I say that a lot, don't I? You do say exciting a lot, but things are exciting. I mean, that's, think that's one of the cool things we it's something new in the garden, in the yard every single day.

Ellen :

Yes, and being able to do this and talk about it, and obviously share our enthusiasm about it. There's a lot of it. There's a lot of it, is really incredibly cool.

Trevor:

Not all. It's not always good out there. It's always it's always exciting.

Ellen :

But you know what? It's good on here, on this podcast?

Trevor:

That's true. It is always good. It is always good. Welcome to yard, to table, the podcast, where we talk about food, we talk about entertaining, we talk about recipes, we talk about growing everything in our yard, which is all centered around our 11 acre Connecticut homestead called stone Brook. That's right. And my name is Ellen Sher crafts, and I am Trevor Crafts, and welcome everybody here. We are talking today. What are we talking about? Trevor, the Stinking Rose. Wait, let me guess that's garlic. Wrong. No, you're right. It is it is garlic. It is garlic. I didn't even know where I you know, I've heard that there's a restaurant called the Stinking Rose. I've always known that it was called the Stinking Rose.

Ellen :

Is that a Shakespearean term?

Trevor:

You know, I thought it was too. I 100% thought it was too, but it's not telling me he was, it was. It was actually a French, French, very French writer and physician named Henri Leclerc,

Ellen :

very nice. Yeah. Thank you. So to our listeners. Trevor has an incredible ability to accents. You can leave in the comments whether you want to hear more,

Trevor:

which I'm sure everybody will automatically. I'm sure listeners, you do like accents. We all know that. So. Henri Leclerc, he translated the Greek for the name. This is the accent part. This is the French accent

Ellen :

Yeah, can we just skip that part?

Trevor:

Okay, fine. So he translated it and came up with the Stinking Rose. So

Ellen :

that's fascinating. And was it because it looked like a rose, because it doesn't?

Trevor:

So it's all from the Greek skoradon, yes, and that translates down through French into the English, Stinking Rose. Amazing. Language is fascinating. So my accent game is strong. I think we can all agree on that what's not so encouragement necessary, what's not so strong is my understanding about agent civilization. So I did have to look this up, because we were talking about garlic today, but I wanted to know how long, you know, we've been eating garlic, not you and I, but just us as humans. It has to be 7000 years. It's a long time.

Ellen :

That's a long time. And I think this always goes back to a conversation you and I have a lot. What drove the first person to try garlic?

Trevor:

It's amazing because it's, it's, I mean, in its raw form,

Ellen :

desperation. I think that's it. Watching animals not die.

Trevor:

Watching not death is always a plus. It's always a plus. Okay, that's safe. I'll try that. Yeah, where all of our food comes from, and how long we've been eating these things that we grow in our yard. Amazing. Is actually fascinating to know how much time and energy has been spent cultivating all of these different fruits and vegetables and things that we grow. It's not just, you know, it's not just a week

Ellen :

well, right? And then how many different varieties there are? I mean, there are, there is a lot

Trevor:

of just garlic, just garlic. Oh yeah, just garlic. It's 38 and it's basically, you have really been doing your research. I'm this is, this is what we do. I know this is our thing. Very impressed. Keep going two different kinds. Generally, there's two different kinds for everybody out. If you know this already, more experienced gardeners are going to know this. But if you're just starting with your your yard, and what you can put into your yard, essentially, you've got two different types. There's soft neck. That means that they don't produce a stalk. There's there's no garlic flour there. And that's the stuff that usually you're going to see in like, you know, grocery stores, and that's the all the varieties

Ellen :

breeding, of the of the styles, the one that you breed.

Trevor:

Yes, I know this because we grow hard neck. Garlic, that's right, yeah, we grow hard neck. I mean, soft necks got all sorts of different. Black garlic is a soft French. Red is a soft garlic, soft neck garlic, elephant garlic actually isn't garlic. Stop. What is it? It is actually a it's a onion. Oh, wow. Now we grow hard neck garlic. That's what we've been putting in into the yard. I think there's a big taste difference between hard neck and soft.

Ellen :

And once you've had it, regardless of what variety you are trying, it also tastes completely different when you grow it in your own garden.

Trevor:

Our hard neck has these six big bulbs that, you know, garlic bits that we get, and it's super fragrant. It's actually pretty easy to peel to I think it's much easier to peel. Hard neck is much easier to peel than soft,

Ellen :

I would say, yeah. And when you get it right out of the ground, you know, it has a little casing around the bulb that's very easy to take off. We'll talk a little bit about that whole growing and ripening schedule. But you know, when it's ready, your basil's popping in the garden at the same time. So it is just a natural Oh, it smells fantastic. Scoop up some of that basil, get that garlic and make yourself some pesto, and it is incredibly flavorful with the fresh garlic and the fresh basil.

Trevor:

You know, for us we grow, we're growing the German hard neck variety,

Ellen :

yes. Well, you know, as we should, because, you know, it aligns to my answer, my ancestry and our collective temperament. That's true.

Trevor:

I think you always think, Oh, I'm gonna go get some garlic, but there's so many, like, is it 38 different kinds? There's so many different kinds of garlic. There's Transylvanian garlic, which seems totally

Ellen :

I was gonna I was gonna say, Do you know, is there a question about which kind of garlic works for vampire repelling?

Trevor:

That would obviously be Transylvanian, also known as Romanian red. Well, that makes sense, but there's music garlic from Italy, which is appropriate. Italy is Tasmanian purple, but you know, the beautiful violet color, Vietnamese red. There's lots of it. There's lots of it, lots of different kinds,

Ellen :

yeah. And for here, you know, obviously we were researching what grows the best in our soil and in our climate, and that was the hard neck German. And obviously I felt a lot of affinity with that, which was very fun. But, you know, you plant in the fall and you harvest in the spring, the scapes, we're gonna talk a little bit about scapes, and then your bulbs are ready in early summer. Yeah.

Trevor:

Some people don't know, is that you actually get two harvests out of a garlic

Ellen :

I didn't know it the first year that we grew them, I was completely caught off guard. And also, again, really excited to learn about a garlic scape.

Trevor:

Yeah, I was like, I don't know what the hell a scape is. What is that? I had no idea, you know, we had a neighbor that said, Oh, it looks like it's time to harvest your scapes. I was like, what? Thank you. Yeah, it was, it was that me. It was an early it was an early bit,

Ellen :

yeah. And sure enough, I went out to the patch, and all of these curlicues were coming out. And again, experienced gardeners, you know exactly what this looks like. But if you don't, it is a bright green stem that's coming out of the top of the garlic leaves. And it curls over when it's really ready, and it has a little point on the end where the flower is going to grow, if it continues to grow, and you nip that, and then you make delicious things,

Trevor:

yeah. I mean, essentially the scape is the flower stalk that's right of hard neck garlic, and it stores all the energy for next year. The trick is, the reason why you cut it is because if you don't trim it down, then all of the bulbs, which is what we eat a lot of. They're very small. They do not get big,

Ellen :

right? And it is a little bit of, it's fun. It's a little bit of a search mission to find the scapes, because you've got all these beautiful leaves that are growing and stems. And sometimes you miss one. And when you do, and you when you're going to pull it, and you see it's flower, you really can notice the difference, yeah, in the size of the bulb. For those that you know, fortunately, I think we only had two this year that we missed.

Trevor:

We were very upset about those two, because then you're like, oh man. And sure enough, when we went to actually pull the garlic out of the ground, those two smaller were much, much smaller. I mean, that's by pruning the scapes and by using them and then ultimately eating them, you are making better garlic. You're just really making sure that all of those, all of the energy from the plant, all that photosynthesis, all of the energy goes down into making the bulbs bigger and bigger and bigger.

Ellen :

Yeah. And for us, it's, you know, it hasn't been an exact science of when to clip that scape, but you know, about six to 12 inches is a rule. We I have air quotes going for those.

Trevor:

It is a podcast, they will not be able to see that.

Ellen :

Sorry, I used air quotes six to 12 inches, you know, so that you have a meaningful garlic scape harvest that you can use in recipes. You just don't want to let that flower open,

Trevor:

yeah, at that point, really, the garlic bulbs down on the base are not just they're just not going to be as flavorful.

Ellen :

You can use the entire scape for cooking, we have found that the flour bowl part's not quite our favorite. Love to hear recipes or ideas from other people, to change our minds. Please send them in. Change my mind. But you know, there's a lot you can do with that delicious, tender green part of the scape, and it's the flavors. It's a little bit like an onion, like a scallion and garlic, a marriage. It's a merger. It's a merger. It's a flavor.

Trevor:

Flavor explosion is one of those things that when we first came here to stone Brook and we started putting stuff in the yard, it was one of those very surprising moments for me. There's been a couple of those with different things that we'll talk about that, you know, like nasturtium flowers or ground cherries, just flavors that I had never experienced. And violets, yeah, Violets just that, that we are big foodies, and we've, we've always, you know, strive to find the most unique flavors out there and go to restaurants that are really pioneering new ways to to use food. But, man, anything right out of your yard, it's so good. And then you've got these scapes, and it's just such a unique, different flavor.

Ellen :

Well, yeah. And then, you know, we reached out to our friends in the community, and they're like, Oh yeah, scapes, they knew all about it. Yeah. They had all the answers for us. It was, you know, oh yeah. Slice them thin and saute them like a green onion, or wrap the entire scape, because it naturally starts to form a circle, like, wrap it up, dip it in some batter, and fry it like an onion ring.

Trevor:

Scape, onion rings amazing. It's pretty cool. Amazing. It's pretty

Ellen :

good, you know? And then the one that became sort of my favorite, I think you love too, is making escape pesto. Escape pesto, early. Escape pesto. Oh my gosh, yeah, it's pretty excellent, incredible. I mean, we've never found pasta that was like, we won't eat this pasta. There isn't a pasta. I don't like chickpea pasta even I'll get it down.

Trevor:

Yeah, that's probably the far end. Yeah. One neighbor told us to use it kind of with basil, yes, and then pine nuts and all the traditional olive oil and Parmigiano Reggiano. There's another accent equally as good as the last one.

Ellen :

Yeah, no, they said, you know, make it like you do a pesto. So while the garlic scapes are lighter in flavor than the actual garlic bulbs themselves, they. Definitely are, as our daughter used to say when she was little, sizey

Trevor:

Instead of spicy. Yes, she was always say sizey, sizey.

Ellen :

And they do pack a punch, and they can be overpowering. So originally I tried very strong. Sometimes they're very strong. So originally I tried blanching them, but then we kind of settled on the fact that we like the spiciness of it so and we came up with our own garlic scape pesto recipe, and super easy. So about a cup of the blanched scapes, if you choose to do that way, or unblanched scapes, are going to go into the food processor. You're going to pulse for about 30 seconds, then add in half cup of either raw pine nuts or walnuts. We've done them with both.

Trevor:

That last version I made with cashews, that was really good. That was excellent. So I recommend cashews,

Ellen :

yeah. So do a quarter cup of cashews, and you're gonna do about an extra 30 seconds, of course, scrape down the bowl to capture all the good stuff that's sticking to the sides. And then you're gonna follow by putting in a half cup of extra virgin olive oil

Trevor:

and get the good stuff. I mean, I think that stuff, it's so funny, because a lot of people think I'll just get whatever. All the olive oils are the same. It's they really aren't. No, you really do have to find a quality good, preferably Italian olive oil. There's a lot of blends out there. I my preference. I think your preference is to really just try to go for a true Italian, full 100% Italian extra virgin.

Ellen :

So put a half of a cup of that really good extra virgin olive oil in, and you're gonna process everything together for about another 15 seconds. You will learn with me. I'm very much by feel cook.

Trevor:

She is. It's true. I'm one that will follow a recipe. I have all the measuring cups out, which is kind of, you know, sort of funny, every dish in the kitchen and every dish that's where I was going with this, yeah, my kitchen, essentially, when I'm finished, looks like an entire restaurant of people have been served. That is very true. And I'm making one plate of food,

Ellen :

yes, it's true. And

Trevor:

Ellen is much more by feel.

Ellen :

Yeah, so much more by feel. And I clean up as I you do 100% you clean as you relate to this.

Trevor:

I'm sure a lot of people can relate to this. Somebody is the cook and somebody is the dish cleaner, upper person, yeah, and those two people get married.

Ellen :

Okay. To get back to the recipe. To finish this delicious pesto, you're going to add a quarter cup of the Parmigiano Reggiano.

Trevor:

Parmigiano Reggiano,

Ellen :

yeah, he always does this. You're gonna pulse now again if you want more than a quarter cup, I'm not judging. I think you add totally should. I'm always about the extra cheese is life. Go for it. Make it happen. Pasta, bread, carbs. You sense the theme life until the ingredients are combined, and then you're going to complete with putting in another quarter cup of the basil leaves and the juice of a lemon. Lemons optional. I like the lemon. I think it really helps to add some flavor to it's delicious and salt. Add a little pepper to taste and serve. Just put a nice coating of olive oil on top and store it in the fridge. It can last for

Trevor:

that's if it actually makes it to the fridge. Very good point, because not only have we found that we love it on pasta and large amounts of that, we will actually just go straight into it with a cracker.

Ellen :

Oh, it is so good as like a dead person.

Trevor:

We have made these Rosemary crackers from the rosemary that we grow. And they're very simple to make, very easy, but you just scoop them up and you put them in your mouth.

Ellen :

It's, it's like just this herbaceous bite, you know, with, obviously, you know, with the basil and the scapes, and then the rosemary, and then, you know, just put a little extra that cheese on top, again, just a little sprinkle. You know,

Trevor:

you're building a lot of layers of flavor, yeah, on something that is pretty standard and traditional, that everybody knows, but you're putting this big twist on it. And I think it's a lot of what we're gonna talk about on yarn to table is finding simple dishes that you can elevate and impress your friends and family all with the stuff that you're growing Absolutely it's more fun than that really

Ellen :

well. And you know, it's speaking of friends and family. It's always sad because your parents, my in laws, they're usually traveling. They teach a summer program in Italy. It's where we get the delicious cheese. Sometimes they bring that back for us.

Trevor:

The're cheese smugglers, they will, don't say anything, they will bring it back in their suitcase,

Ellen :

which we are very grateful for. But they teach a summer program in Italy every year, and they miss garlic scape harvesting season every year. And so we cut them up, and we got an easy way to save that so that you have it for our friends that maybe missed that time. Or you can enjoy it later in the season. Is, you know, you process the scapes and the olive oil together and you freeze them. You can use an ice cube tray and just put it in little, you know, little sections in the ice cube tray, or put it in a bag or a glass container, and. Your freezer, and you got it all year.

Trevor:

And the great thing about scapes is that they're there's not one thing to do. No, there's so many different you can use it like you use garlic or an onion 100% you can put it on salad. You can make jelly out of it for a very peppery kind of savory jelly. For cheeses, there's 1000 different things that you can do with garlic,

Ellen :

and we were just looking at garlic scape salt,

Trevor:

yeah, taking, essentially your garlic scapes, grinding them in the food processor, putting them into the oven with a lot of salt. Essentially, it's a two to one ratio of garlic scape to salt. Don't use table salt. No no table salt, because they that has iodine in it. And really go for a good kosher salt.

Ellen :

Always get the good stuff.

Trevor:

Yeah, I think that's gonna be a theme. That is a theme. Always get the good stuff, and then put it in the oven. If you have at a super low level, if you have a dehydrator function on your oven, you can use that one, or you just put it down to the lowest level, and then you just let it cook until the salt and the scapes are crunchy and sort of create like a almost like a cake. Take that break it back up again, put it back into the food processor, grind it down. And if you store it in an airtight container, it can last for a year, two years, and it is the spicy, unique flavor of the garlic scape, plus salt you can use in pretty much everything.

Ellen :

All right, so garlic scapes, amazing

Trevor:

scapes are so all of this time we've just, we haven't even been talking about garlic, I know bulbs. We've been talking about the top part, just the scape.

Ellen :

And then you wait a few more weeks, maybe a month. I mean, seasons are very temperamental

Trevor:

science fiction. It is in science fiction. So whenever it's right to harvest the garlic for you, yes, in your zone.

Ellen :

And usually you're looking to see that the all the leaves on the bottom are yellow, and that you're at that place and, you know, pull out a bulb test it. See for us, it's been pretty much the first week of July. You know, in seven A has been our week to harvest. But, you know, it's all depends micro climates and things like that. You know, nothing beats good old getting your fingers in there and checking out yourself and figuring it out so, you know? And then I actually think, like, garlic bulb harvesting is so much fun. It is so satisfying.

Trevor:

It's almost like popping bubble wrap, yeah, you know, you have this, like, same, yes. Ellen gets very, very excited I do for pulling garlic,

Ellen :

I do I it's just it has a beginning and a middle and an end, and it is like, so you know what it is, it feels, you feel so good. First of all, like you do with anything that you grow to take something out of the garden that you have created, is it is just such a feeling of accomplishment and and then, you know, to, you know, harvest the garlic and see that it was successful, and it looks gorgeous and smells so good. It's just a it's endorphin central for me. Oh yeah, yeah, I'm on the happy train.

Trevor:

And once you've got it out, yeah, you know, it's still not the end.

Ellen :

No. I mean, you know, you can use it right away. So obviously, we were talking a little bit about fresh garlic and basil, and we did that immediately this year, just like we always do, you know, you get it out, you make something quickly, and you keep some fresh garlic, but then for it to last, you know, you want to cure it. So for us, we have, you know, we lay everything out but the hard knock garlic. Your stems are very hard, so you can't do the braiding, but you can tie them in bunches and you can hang them. I try to make sure that the bulbs aren't touching each other. I kind of stagger them a little bit when I hang them. And you know, for us, we're really very low maintenance old school here. We have so many old screens and old screen doors from around our property, because our house is almost 100 years old, and that we just put screens up in a covered in our covered porch area, and we lay them out. I turn them once a week, and you cure them for about three weeks, and then you're ready to cut and store

Trevor:

Yeah, and I think the important part for us is that we them. do have the ability to store them, not in the sun,

Ellen :

yes, and not in the rain. You have to keep them away from direct sun. That's really important, direct sun and moisture,

Trevor:

because that's where your rots gonna set in, right? So these are in the shade, this little breezeway that we have next to the garden. Luckily, you know, it always gets a little bit of a breeze, even on a very hot day. So they're curing, they're slowly drying out. And that's really what you want, because you want that protective coating around in those first couple of skins of the garlic. We did have a couple of garlic murders, unfortunately, when. We were harvesting, more of those came from me than they did from you. I want that noted for the record. It is already known as official. It's in the record, my permanent record. Yes, your spade made connections. My spade made a connection, unfortunately. And my pulling was a little too vigorous, and the top stalk just came right off.

Ellen :

And I, you know, I may have ribbed you a little bit for that, but that's important to know. Have Oh, I definitely did. Oh, yeah, but it's important to know because when you were harvesting, you know, the best method that I found, that we have found, is that you get the spade and loosen the dirt up around the bulb, and then it you can pull from the top that, you mean, the stalks are very sturdy. But, you know, depending on your soil and the texture of your soil, you know, we get, you know, we have done a whole project on up, doing our beds and adding in new soil, but our previous soil was very

Trevor:

Clay, Clay and a lot of clay, yeah, so it would retain a lot of moisture. So when you

Ellen :

it was like getting them out of cement. So, I mean, compared to the year before, I think we lost a lot less.

Trevor:

Oh, we only lost, I think six. And the great news is, you know, you use that green garlic, as it's called, The uncured garlic, and you use that immediately in whatever, whatever dish you feel like, Darn, oh no, we have to hurry up and use this garlic. Oh, shocks, yeah. It's not a it's not a hardship. None of this is hard.

Ellen :

None of it's a hardship. But, you know, the curing you if you do it correctly, and it takes you really have garlic for most of the year, yeah, which is pretty awesome. And so once it's dry, you go through and you cut off all the tops. I brush off that first layer of skin.

Trevor:

And really it is a brushing. It's not a scrubbing. You just want to get the any cakes of dirt that are left on you, just like you're going to do the deep clean. Yeah, you know, bulbs are going to come out, you're going to open them up and de skin them entirely. And that makes it much better.

Ellen :

That's right. But we also went very easy for our garlic storage is you have to make sure that you're put them in containers that get good air flow and that are going to be obviously stored in a cool and dry place. That's, as we all know, for those of us who can or, you know, store root vegetables, onions, garlic, potatoes, things like those. You know, you have to make sure you're in a place that has good air flow and is cool.

Trevor:

And we did a pretty simple thing, I think that almost everybody can do totally anybody with a drill can do it, essentially, yes, I went to the local hardware store and I got a tile cutting bit for the drill. Pretty simple. Just put a little water first.

Ellen :

I did a little research and said, Honey, can you do this?

Trevor:

The honey do list, the yard, the yard to do list.

Ellen :

And amazingly, you can. That's what's so

Trevor:

great. And I did, and we had a great time doing it. Just took a regular flower pot and the flower pot plate that goes underneath it,

Ellen :

yeah. And I terracotta, simple terracotta, and brand new. You don't want to reuse a flower pot that you may have had dirt in, or anything like that. You want to get a brand new base and pot

Trevor:

right, and then just drill a bunch of holes all through the pot, because and the lid, and the lid I was getting there and the lid on top.

Ellen :

Sorry, keep going.

Trevor:

So you drill all these holes, and then you use the plate invert it as a lid. It'll sit right in the top of the flower pot. So then you have a fully aerated pot. You can buy these pots. They're, you know, all over the internet, you can get ceramicists to make them and do them, and they work. It's fine. But you can also do this and get a super cheap flower pot and just drill holes in it with a tile cutter,

Ellen :

and super easy. And, you know, the nice part about it too, is you can use it for so many different things. You can use it for shallot storage, onions, and, you know, as far as labeling, I just get a white piece of chalk, and I write the date and the name of the item that's in it, and that way we know what what it is, which is super simple and easy.

Trevor:

I mean, our garlic almost lasted the entire through the winter. Almost

Ellen :

it did. I mean, we were into, I mean, honestly, it was early spring.

Trevor:

Yeah, we were almost in, back into scape season by the time we had finished with our garlic. And in addition to doing all of the normal preservation for the actual garlic itself, there's always a great time. Just cut that top of the garlic off, put it on a pan. Put a bunch of them on the pan, throw this, I know you do, olive oil, salt, just toss them in, roast them up. They become very pliable, almost almost like a jam, like consistency at that point in time. Squeeze them out, squeeze all those beautiful garlic pieces out. Get some reusable bags that are like snack bags, that kind of a thing, and then flatten them out. Just put that paste right in there, flat. An amount, throw them in your freezer, then you can just snap off little pieces as you need it for whatever cooking you're doing.

Ellen :

You forgot the most important

Trevor:

part, something about Eating more garlic,

Ellen :

exactly. So you take some of that delicious roasted garlic, and you put it on a delicious slice of bread, and then you eat it

Trevor:

before you freeze it. That's correct. Understood, yes, there is no way. I thought that was, sort of assumed that we were doing that

Ellen :

well for us naturally. Because there is no way you're not gonna eat that delicious press roasted garlic before you put it away. That's true, but it is another great way to store it,

Trevor:

and there's lots of you know, you can even take the UN roasted garlic and do that same thing. You can put that in the food processor, and you can find a way, whatever works for you, to store it in the freezer and have the that fresh garlic available as well.

Ellen :

And I think the other cool part about growing your own garlic is it's self sustaining, so before you eat it, process it, roast it. You're gonna pick out your top, most beautiful, largest garlic bulbs that you've grown, and you're gonna reuse those to plant for next year. We just saved them. Yeah. And then come fall, you plant them. You just break them apart, you put the put the cloves in, one at a time. And, I mean, we got out of that. What was the math? So it was 30 bulbs, and we got how many plants? About 180 garlic plants from those 30

Trevor:

, yes. And they were all bigger this year than they were last year, right? And this is part of the fun of of you know, working in your yard, you're sort of controlling this agriculture that you're building. That's right. So every year, your garlic is going to get a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger, because you're essentially doing selective evolution of your own garlic.

Ellen :

That's right, yes, just like I'm doing with the zinnias. Yeah, that's another podcast.

Trevor:

That's a different episode, but that's part of it, is that when you pull these, these larger bulbs, and we're pulling the biggest, biggest ones we can find is just making that next year's harvest that much bigger from each individual bulb.

Ellen :

That's right, it is a wonderful feeling to know that you have created this cycle of growth. And when we have people come over and sit at the table and we're serving our garlic spread and the pesto and making all the dishes that we make with garlic, because it is one of our it's a good absolute go to

Trevor:

like most people on the planet Earth, it's just last 7000 years. Apparently

Ellen :

it's so good. It's satisfying. It's so satisfying to know that this is something that you've put so much heart and energy into, and you're sharing it with people. I love that feeling.

Trevor:

I think also, it's not that hard. It's not like something you need to do endless maintenance on. That's the fun part. You know, you're selecting these 30 bulbs to put in and back into the ground again.

Ellen :

If you're thinking about what I've never grown anything before, and you think, what garlic is easy. It is so easy, it really doesn't require a ton of maintenance.

Trevor:

No, you have to water it. You have to watch out for certain signs of rot. You can get nematodes and other things that, you know, pests that can possibly attack it. But that's partially why we grow the German hard neck is because it is very hardy. It's very cold resistant. Not all of the different varieties of garlic are as cold resistant our our zone did change from seven to seven a so we're a little bit warmer than we once were here in Connecticut, in Western Connecticut. But that's, I think one of the great parts about garlic is you really do have a pretty wide range of mess up before you kill it off.

Ellen :

So just some basics. With planting garlic, you want to plant them in the late fall or early winter. That sounds easy, six weeks before the ground freezes. Good luck figuring that out. So none of this is an exact science. I love when people say that. You know, in milder areas you can plant in January and February. That's not us in New England. But you know, you want to make sure the soil has plenty of compost, and that's your basis for fertilizing your garlic, because it really is very easy to grow. That gives you good water retention and good drainage. If you're using good soil and good compost, you know it is important, if you're going to be planting in fall and you're looking to harvest in early summer, that you have another fertilization moment, which is in like May, so early spring. It's a fertilizer that's high in nitrogen, because they love that, but it's important not to use that after that early spring moment, because that's when they're really doing their growing, and anything else that you put in there can interrupt with the growing. So really, it's really only one note. Then you get some delicious scapes, then you harvest your bulbs, and then you do it again. What's better than that? I think it's amazing.

Trevor:

Okay, think about this, tomatoes from your yard, garlic from your yard, Basil from your yard, and a very good bread, which, if you're growing wheat, could also come from your yard. We are not currently growing wheat in our yard. No, not currently. But never, say, Never, just those things together, the simple, simple, simple ingredients elevated and from your own backyard, what's better nothing.

Ellen :

Nothing is better than that. That's true. If you want to try any of the recipes that we talked about today, or look at our recommendations for growing garlic, then take a look at our podcast show notes,

Trevor:

and if you want to find out what's going on today right in our backyard at Stone Brook follow us on Instagram@stonebrookhouse. Well, it's been a lot of fun talking about garlic. Garlic is a great topic. I'm sure there's a lot more we could say about garlic. I heard that you could repair glass with garlic. I have no idea where I heard that. Did you bring that up earlier? That would have been a much better thing to bring up earlier.

Ellen :

All right, we're saving that for a future episode as well, but thanks for being with us and having a seat at our table.

Trevor:

Yard to Table is a production of Macrocosm Entertainment. Don't forget to rate us and subscribe anywhere you listen to podcasts and for tips and more information, follow us on Instagram@stonebrookhouse.

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Ellen Scherer Crafts

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Paula Koffsky

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Trevor Crafts

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