Growing Garlic

You can never 

have enough 

garlic.  With 

enough garlic, you can eat the New York times. 

Morley Safer 

On a recent visit to the local farmers market, I paused in front of the booth with all the beautiful garlic - there were baskets full of more types of garlic than I ever knew existed.  In that moment, I decided that garlic needed to find the way to my garden. 

The garlic lady who noticed my interest asked if she could help me.  "Yes, I want to grow some garlic"...somewhere in my memory was the file that told me that fall was the time to plant garlic so at least I appeared somewhat knowledgeable.  "Great!  October is just the right time to plant" she said.  I stood a little taller feeling like I had some gardening 'cred'.  LOL 

Her next question, took all the 'cred' out of my stance for sure.  "Are you looking for hardneck or softneck?"  Her question was meet with a blank stare....I had only ever gotten garlic from the bin at the grocery and had no idea there were different types.  Thank goodness she was kind and patient.

Softneck garlic is the type you usually find in the grocery.  It is mild and stores very well.  These are the types you might find in a cute little braided wreath which sounds like something I might like to do.

Hardneck garlic is more like wild garlic and has stronger and more complex flavors.  They won't last as long in storage but if cured can last six to ten months which seems plenty long to me.  The most wonderful thing about hardneck garlic is that the growing stalks produce the scape which is something I love to have in the summer. 

So, with the help of our local garlic lady, I chose some bulbs of both types - and the cloves are already separated and tucked snuggly into the garden bed.  You can easily tell them apart when you pull the cloves from the bulb.  The hardneck varieties have a definite hard stem right up through the middle of the bulb.  

To plant, carefully break the cloves from the bulb.  Plant them about 2 inches deep with the pointed end upward (root end down) and space about 8 inches apart.   Cover with some mulch and water weekly but do not over water which may cause the garlic to rot - garlic does not like overly wet soil. 

When the leaves above ground start to turn yellow or brown, it is time to harvest.  This will likely be toward the end of the summer and into autumn. Wash the soil away, let dry in a well-ventilated space and enjoy your harvest!   

Stevia - How Sweet It Is!

When life gives you lemons, add sweet tea. 

Unknown

It has been a wonderful few weeks in the garden at Estle Schipp Farm!  Everything is green and growing quickly.  We've enjoyed fresh, crisp salads and are eagerly awaiting that first ripe tomato.  The herb garden is also bringing great growing joy!  

The chives are straight and tall, the basil leaves are fragrant and green and the rosemary has taken root and sprouting new growth.  There is a new addition this year from a find at a local farmers market - Stevia! 

I was strolling through the tables laden with herb plants of so many varieties, enjoying the beauty, the fragrance and all the possibilities and I happened to see a single pot of Stevia.  I picked it up and the lovely lady farmer asked me if I had ever tried it.  I had not, of course.  "Taste a leaf - go ahead"...so I plucked a small one and placed it on my tongue.  Oh my goodness...it is a intense sweetness and so different than the herbaceous flavors of other herbs.  I was intrigued, to say the least, to think of how I could use it.

The plant is already growing well in the corner of our herb garden.  The plant is not cold tolerant so I will need to either dig it up and place in a pot to over-winter indoors or else treat it as an annual.  We'll see how the season goes.  

Using Stevia is pretty easy.  The fresh leaves can be crushed and added to your iced tea for sweetness without the calories of sugar.  The leaves can also be dried, whirred into a powder in your food processor and used in recipes.  The sweetness of Stevia is way more than regular sugar so I'll have to do some experimenting to use it as a sugar replacement. I really like the idea of growing this plant myself and have options over white, granulated sugar from sugar cane - especially since I'm pretty sure that growing sugar cane in Indiana would be an exercise in frustration.  ;)

What new herbs are you growing this year? 

Peace be with you, 

Star Schipp

This post may contain affiliate links which means if you make a purchase using one of those links, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you.  It is a great way to support your favorite hobby farm blogger.  Thank you! 

Save the Radish Greens!

The first gatherings of the garden in May of salads, radishes and herbs made me feel like a mother about her baby ... how could anything so beautiful be mine. 

Alice B. Toklas

The joy of the May garden is in full swing at Estle Schipp Farm.  The lettuce called Freckles is growing taller every day, the chives are already showing their lavender blooms that look like a flower that could house the little world of Whoville and the radishes are showing their beautiful red shoulders right above the soil.  I even saw the first blossom on the pea shoots today!  The May garden is full of greens for salads and greens for sauteing, all of which are so welcomed in my kitchen. 

I have a confession to make.  I had no idea you could eat the green tops of the radish plant.  I have always loved the crisp heat that comes from that radish pulled right from the ground and rinsed in the garden hose.  Some even make their way to the kitchen to go in the dinner salad.  I had always composted those beautiful, green, leafy tops.  What was I thinking??! 

Radish greens make fresh, peppery additions to your spring salads PLUS they are wonderful cooked like you would kale, spinach, chard, collards or beet greens.  Can you tell I'm on a 'greens' kick these days?  LOL 

I owe this discovery to Jenny at Nourished Kitchen who shared a soup recipe that called for adding radish GREENS to the pot after turning off the heat and letting them wilt just perfectly.  Today, I took the freshly picked bunch of radishes right to the kitchen and made quick work of cooking them right up and I loved them!  Here's what I cooked today: 

Radish and Greens Saute 

1 bunch of radishes with tops 

1 tsp. olive oil

salt

pepper

balsamic vinegar

Wash radishes and greens well and remove the tip.  Quarter the radishes and chop the greens.  Heat the olive oil and add the quartered radishes.  Saute until golden brown.  Add the greens and cook just until wilted.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Add a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.  (serves 1) 

I still cannot believe all the years I threw away this culinary gem.  The greens are full of vitamins and minerals too like folate, riboflavin, potassium, copper, B6, magnesium, manganese and calcium plus fiber.  We all love that!  The next time you see a radish, I hope you will try the tops...after all, there is more to this underappreciated vegetable than that red thing in the salad that you douse with dressing.  :) 

Peace be with you, 

Star Schipp 

This post may contain affiliate links which means if you make a purchase using one of those links, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you.  It is a great way to support your favorite hobby farm blogger.  Thank you!   

Saturday Skill: Planning the Garden: Size Matters!

Real gardeners know their gardens change size in the course of a year.  When they order seeds and plants in the winter, their gardens are the size of a football field.  At planting time in the spring, their gardens are the size of a postage stamp.  When it's 100 degrees outside in August, their gardens are the size of three football fields.  And in the fall, when it's time to clean up, their gardens don't exist at all! 

  Art Wolk 

Happy Spring!  Gardening has started in earnest at Estle Schipp Farm.  Rhubarb is sprouting and asparagus too.  The strawberry leaves are greening up and some garden beds have been planted with onions, potatoes, radishes, peas, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, swiss chard, spinach, kale and carrots.  I look out at the raised beds that Bob created for me last season and see a wonderful garden bounty in our future!  

I'm pouring over the Seed Savers Exchange Yearbook and plan this year's garden as I do every year.  I am so very guilty of planning a garden than is larger than I can reasonably care for in the limited time I have for it.  This year, I promised myself to use restraint.

That restraint can be hard to come by! One of the worst mistakes I have made in gardening is making it so big that I cannot stay on top of weeding and being frustrated with the garden yield because of it. One year, I tearfully told Bob to just mow it down because the weeds overwhelmed.   

Now is the time to right size the garden for the amount of time you can spend per week to plant, water, weed, harvest and process the gifts your garden will produce.  Anna Hess, author of The Weekend Homesteader, suggests that a garden of 144 square feet will require a couple of hours of work per week.  That would be a prepared soil bed of 3 feet by 48 feet and would be a great start for the beginning gardener provided the correct plants are chosen.  

I bet we could all find a couple of hours a week to put toward growing fresh and nutritious food for our families!  Perhaps a little less time on the computer and a little more time in the fresh air and sunshine is in order.  :) 

So if you are gardening on a small scale this year, what are some plants you might choose?  Here are some of my favorites: 

• Swiss Chard: A nutritious, delicious green that is also easy to grow
• Summer Squash:  Yes, even zucchini!  These plants are easy to grow and produce prolifically so you get a lot of growing satisfaction with little work
• Green Beans:  I love being able to pick these fresh and have on the dinner table in hardly any time at all.  Quite easy to grow too! 
• Tomatoes:  There is nothing like a homegrown tomato...not one other thing on earth - please grow at least one plant :) 
• Mint:  After some time in the sun weeding the garden, pluck some fresh mint to add to your ice water and you will feel cool and refreshed right away. 
• Basil:  Homegrown tomatoes and fresh basil are a wonderfully fresh salad to add to your summer table with hardly any effort at all

Gardening is a year round event.  Planning in the Winter, planting in the Spring, tending in the Summer and harvesting/clean up in the Fall.  It is so easy to overcommit and not see the project through. 

This year, let's downsize that garden and take pride and joy in work well done.  Happy growing! 

Peace be with you, 

Star Schipp  

10 Plants to Grow to Help the Bees

Thank you The Graphics Fairy for the vintage bee image.

If you need something from

 somebody, 

always give that person a way to hand it to  you. 

-Sue Monk Kidd-

The Secret Life of Bees 

Thank you, so much, for coming by to visit today.  This is my 50th post and I am thrilled that you are here. I can hardly believe that we have come this far! The blog has had over 4000 views and I am quite humbled by it all.  Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

There has been another milestone too!  The first book from the little free library was sent out and it was one of my very favorites:  The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.  It is a coming of age story but much more than that.  The unconditional love of others, the power of forgiveness and the way that life and love intertwine with the way that bees work together makes a powerful statement.  If you have not read it yet, I hope you put it on your reading list. 

I'm sure you have heard in the news about the difficulty honeybees are having these days.  We will be expanding our hives this year to do our part to help.  One of the things you can do is to plant bee friendly plants in your garden or flower beds this spring.  If you are like me, you are already looking forward to it.  

10 Plants that Help Bees    

• Bee Balm - This is a favorite of bees and hummingbirds and makes a nice tea for the gardener too. 

• Borage - This plant has a perfect blue flower that is beautiful in a salad and tastes like cucumber.  The plant blooms over a very long season and provides a lot of nectar for the bees and butterflies too. 

• Catnip - The plant adored by cats, bees and butterflies but not by deer makes a pretty good tea for you too. 

• Cilantro - Homemade salsa is just one reason to grow this herb that also provides abundant nectar for bees and butterflies.

• Fennel - This is a truly versatile plant for your garden so plant more than one. You can use the seeds for seasoning, the leaves for tea, the bulb for a vegetable and it is good for the bees too. 

• Lavender - Bees adore this plant.  Plus you can use it in your homemade body care products or to provide a lovely scent in your home.  

• All the mints - With more than 7000 different species in this family, you can plant several and have a constant succession of blooming mints for your own use and to feed your bees. 

• Rosemary - This plant is another great love of pollinators of all kinds plus it flavors your Sunday Roast Chicken perfectly! 

• Sage - Next time you want to use sage, go pick some fresh from your garden.  You will be amazed at the difference from the dried sage you get in a tin at the grocery.  The bees know it is better too. :) 

• Thyme - Bees adore the tiny pink flowers of this plant and you will adore it  too in a marinade for those items you will grill this summer.   

Grow the herbs for your own use and let them also flower to provide the nectar that bees needs for nourishment.  Bees also need water so include a bird bath, fountain or other water source to help. 

Try to group the bee-friendly plants together with different blooming periods to extend the usefulness to your bees.  Bees need to eat all throughout spring, summer and autumn and then will get nourishment from the stores in the hive all winter. 

Which herbs interest you most to grow for your own use but also for the use of the bees and other pollinators that choose to visit your garden?  Remember, it doesn't have to be a whole garden!  It can be a flower bed or even one potted plant on your porch, patio or deck. 

 If each one of us would plant just one, we all would be healthier for it.  Let me know in the comments what you  plan to plant this year.  

As Sue Monk Kidd said, "Every little thing wants to be loved." Let's show our love this year and plant just one thing more for the bees.  

Tomorrow will be another day in the garden and I'll review even more herbs to consider growing this year. I'll also include a couple of dried seasoning mixes I like to make which also make nice gifts.  

If you have not grown herbs before, you will be so surprised how easy they are to grow and better yet, how much better they make your simple recipes taste.  I hope to see you then.  

Peace be with you, 

Star Schipp

This post may contain affiliate links which means if you make a purchase using one of those links, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you.  It is a great way to support your favorite hobby farm blogger.  Thank you!