So, what did I learn this time while planting?

• The dibbler does not reach the ground when it’s mounted on the tractor.  I had the brilliant idea that I’ll pull the dibbler behind the tractor, so that my rows would be very straight.  I went as far as buying additional parts for the dibbler to adapt it to fit on my hitch.  Unfortunately, I mounted it and it just spun in the air. Doh!
• Any task that I’m going to ask others to help me with has to be done first by me.  I spent a good deal of time measuring and remeasuring to get more accurate numbers of what I was planting.  Because I spent the time, I have a great deal more confidence in my counts this year.  I’ve noticed that when I have others working for me, this kind of information gets lost.  I always appreciate the help, but I now see that I need to develop a methodology on my own before bringing others into the task.
• I can manage the whole process on my own.  That said, given my current task load, 10,000 head of garlic is a pretty realistic maximum.

As a side note, I’m hoping to make a batch of garlic powder soon.

• Garlic
• Garlic Braids
• Sprouts
• Potatoes (White and Blue)
• Butternut Squash
• Sunchokes (aka Jerusalem Artichokes)

We hope to see folks there!

Here’s a map for those that don’t know where…

To keep my day moving, I decided that I’d have a contest.  The song that popped up on shuffle that pushed that “awesome” button in the best way would win.  What would that artist win?  A small bag of garlic for each band member.  There were, of course, a couple of disqualifying points.  The artist can’t be dead.  The artist has to reside in North America.  With all due respect to our European (and other) friends, I’m not messing with customs.

OK….so drumroll please.  The winner is:

Yo La Tengo – Nothing to Hide

So, James McNew, Georgia Hubley, and Ira Kaplan your garlic awaits you.  Now to track down an address…

Update: It looks like YLT are pretty solidly on tour until December.  I’ll be sending the garlic to their PO Box then.  Congratulations YLT.

Towards the end of the day, Kathleen and Asa surprised me.  At that point, I had 50 heads of German White to break and plant.  Kathleen and I broke all the heads and then she planted the final row while I walked around with Asa on my shoulders.  He had a blast as I ran up and down the rows.

In the end, I didn’t have time to spread any of the straw, but hopefully I can get that done in the wee hours at the start and end of the day over the next few days.  I have 4 rows covered so far.

Now for the counts of what I planted:

Music – 665
MarJean – 763
Ukranian Red – 2,739
Spanish Roja – 2,152
German White – 4,159

All these numbers are based on field measurements.  There’s no doubt they’re not 100% correct, but they’re really really close.

After wrestling with the Allis D17 and ultimately replacing a dead battery, the field finally was plowed, disked and tilled over the course of three days.  Daylight is scarce after I get out of work, so I have to do what I can with the little daylight there is.

As you can see from the picture, that bit all went well.  The bad news was the weather forecast.  They had forecast rain and snow in minor amounts for the whole weekend.  Terrible conditions.  I don’t think I’ve ever been happier that the forecast was dead wrong.  Saturday started with sun and ended with clouds with some blue sky in the distance.  We were on the edge of the cloudbank for the nastiness our neighbors to the south and east experienced.  With the additional prep work, we wound up getting 2 full rows of Ukrainian Red in.

Sunday morning, I got up slowly, but was finally in the field by 8 or so.  As you can see from the picture, I was greeted by frost.  Pushing garlic cloves through that frost layer hurts the fingers.  Lucky for me it didn’t stay frozen for too long.  I worked until about noon, getting the rest of the Ukrainian Red in, as well as all of the Music and Marjean.  At that point, it was a break for lunch with Kathleen and Asa.

After a long lunch, Kathleen joined me in the field while Asa napped and we knocked out a row and half of Spanish Roja.

At this point we have 6 full rows done and between 5 and 6 to go.  Those will happen Tuesday…until then…adieu.

Heather & Kathleen on Day 1

Well we had our first outing at a very big festival and it was a great (and exhausting) time.

Day 1: When I arrived at about 6:30 am on Saturday, I found out I made a very big rookie mistake.  We received what I thought was a parking permit for the festival.  I had given it to Kathleen so she could park close by when she arrived with Asa.  What I didn’t know is that I needed this permit to get into the gate.  The Saugerties police officer guarding the front gate was “very sympathetic to my situation,” but was unyielding.  After wandering around for about 45 minutes inside looking for someone to allow me past the gate, I opted to try a back entrance.  The truckload of garlic proved to be more convincing at that entrance.  Mistakes were made. Lessons were learned.

Despite the setback, we still had plenty of time to set up.  That was a very good thing because the moment the gates opened up, a throng of people came through.  We’ve always worked at smaller markets, so this was a very new experience for us.  Luckily our friend Heather was there to help.  We honestly couldn’t have managed with out help.  We were also setup right next to the great folks from Lindon Garlic Farm who we had met at the Bennington fest.  They’ll have a new playmate for Asa next year, so we’re going to do what we can to set up near them at Bennington.  I’ll also plug their garlic powder.  It’s killer.

Erin, Matthew, Paul & Asa

Day 2: Speaking of help, we had our good friends Matthew & Erin join us on the decidedly ickier Sunday.  It oscillated between light drizzle and actual rain all day, but the turnout still seemed pretty robust given the circumstances.  It was slower, but at the end of the day, we only came home with 9 braids and 1 half pound of garlic.  Crazy.  Other highlights of day 2 included a gentleman dressed like dracula that lurked around the fringes of our booth for a while.  Our friend Allison from Lindon garlic had a brief conversation with him that went something like this:

Dracula: Where do I get one of those things?
Allison: What?
Dracula: One of those things that you sit in.  (I think he wanted her chair)
Allison: I need to sit.  My baby is due in 5 weeks.
Dracula: (In a huff) Well I’ve been dead for years.

I don’t think I need to comment further on that….

The great thing about this is that we sold all of our garlic.  The bad thing about that is that we really don’t have any left to sell online at this point.  Our poor friends will get some less than perfect garlic this year (sorry friends).

In the end we had a great time.  We’re always learning and we strive to do it better every year.  Thanks to the old friends that came out and all the new friends that we met.  We’re planning on being there next year and look forward to seeing everyone again!

The festival runs from 10-6 on Saturday 9/26 and 10-5 on Sunday 9/27. It costs $10 to get in.  Kids 12 and under are free with an adult in tow.  There’s plenty to do and see aside from popping by and visiting us, so come and make a day of it.

Oh and our booth is B93. Stop and say hi!

For the first time we’ve grown pumpkins that are primarily for carving (as opposed to eating).  A good number of these will be going to our friend’s Catskill wedding!  Fun!

In the garlic news, we’ve posted the online store.  Only three varieties available, as that’s all we have in quantity.  The half pound bags listed are actually .57 pounds, which works out to $7/pound.

We learned a lot of things and hope to keep improving .  Matthew (pictured left) went on a brainstorming tear and gave us some great ideas, including a Garlic FAQ page.  I’ll be working on that in the coming week…so look for it soon. Page is up, if incomplete.  We’ll keep adding more.

Other important things of note.  We finished doing weight counts of what’s left to sell.  The biggest challenge we have right now in putting stuff up for sale on the web is that we don’t have any earthly clue as to how much we can/will sell at the Saugerties festival.   We’ll have it figured out in the next day or two. Because of limited seed stock, most will be sold as table stock, but you can always email us and ask.

Basket of Ukrainian Red

We’ll keep you posted.

First up:

The 14th annual Southern Vermont Garlic & Herb Festival

Saturday and Sunday September 5th and 6th
10am-5pm both days
$5 adults $1 children
http://lovegarlic.com for all directions/etc.
Let us know you’re coming via the Facebook event

This is a nice, smaller festival that’s very family friendly with events like garlic golf and foods like garlic ice cream… Our other festival appearance is at the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival in Saugerties towards the end of September.  That’s a much bigger festival, so if you thrive on crowds, that may be more up your alley.  Both are a lot of fun and we hope to see old friends and new friends at both!

Also, to our good friends…if anyone is up for helping out at either event, we can offer you gas money and a lot of garlic.   We mostly need help on Saturday of both events, but Saturday and Sunday would work too.

Other news:

• We got the late blight.  We lost all of our tomatoes except (by some miracle) Matt’s Wild Cherry.  I had to stunt the potato vines and will be harvesting the potatoes in the next few days.  We’ll see what we get.
• I’m still working on the web store.  It’s hard to get a handle on how much to put up for sale, as I don’t really know how much we can/will sell at the festivals.  I expect that it’ll be up and running just after labor day weekend.
• Asa’s growing like a weed.  I fully expect him to be walking by his first birthday.  He can stand on his own without support, but he hasn’t figured out the locomotion bit.  He crawls like lightning.