I have more to write about garlic planting, but for the moment, I just want to throw out a reminder/notification that we’ll be at the Ballston Spa Indoor Farmers Market this Saturday from 9am to Noon. We don’t have a ton but here’s the rundown:
We hope to see folks there!
Here’s a map for those that don’t know where…
So.. while I was planting all of that garlic, I had to pass the time somehow. The iPod was plugged into the truck stereo and thrown into shuffle play. Now, there really isn’t anything on my iPod that I wouldn’t want to hear, but there are definitely songs that seem to match the moment so perfectly. No…I don’t have any songs about planting garlic in my iPod, but there’s definitely songs that keep me moving forward and possibly make me work just a little faster.
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.
Tuesday was a very productive day. I got up bright and early and started planting as soon as I could. Basically, all that was left was a row of Spanish Roja and then 5+ rows of German White. It took most of the day, but I got it all in.
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.
Frost in the air can only mean one thing…it’s time to plant garlic again. We always aim for Columbus day weekend and never quite hit the target. That’s ok though because the broader target is the month of October.
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!
