Cilantro

Wow, the cilantro is growing strong.  I’ve picked a number of bunches of cilantro today.  Too bad the tomatoes aren’t ready to go as they would make great salsa.   The cilantro smells so good.  This is slow bolt cilantro.  Cilantro bolts or goes to seed and becomes bitter very quickly.  Slow bolt cilantro is suppose to go to seed much slower.  You can see from the first photos a slight difference in some of the cilantro.  This is the cilantro slowly starting to bolt.

Radish

The radishes are huge today.  I’ve pulled a number of radishes out of the ground today.  Also for the first time in 5 years, we have a critter in the garden.  Based upon what was eaten and the location (and also what I normally see in the garden), I’m guessing I have rabbits.  I’ll keep an eye on it and hopefully the rabbits will eat only a reasonable amount.  They are hungry after all.

Peppers

The peppers are starting to grow.  They’ve been about 3 inches tall for the past few weeks and they’ve added about two inches in the past few days.  We are a long way to actually eating a pepper, but they are looking good.

Rocky Top Lettuce

The rocky top is going strong.  I took a small batch of baby lettuces out today and they tasted wonderful.  The rocky top is delicate when it is in the baby stage, but in another couple of weeks we’ll have a strong batch of lettuce.  At this point they are growing very tightly together and require almost no care, which is a treat.

Peas

Check out the peas — we’ve got pods.  I’m so excited.  I’ve never grown peas before so I was surprised to notice the snaps growing on the vine.  There are about 4 pea pods per plant — a little less than I expected.  I was able to pull a pod and took a picture of the inside.  I think they need a week or two more but so far they taste great.  I also took a picture of the pea blossoms.

Garlic

The garlic is growing perfectly.  It was planted in the fall and is about 3 to 5 feet tall today.  There are a variety of theories on growing garlic, one of which is to cut the tops of the garlics — called the scapes — to allow for the bulbs to focus on growing.  I’ve cut the scapes and I haven’t cut the scapes and have found no difference.  Anyway, I cut some scapes — enough for me to throw in a stirfry.  I have some pretty good pictures of the scapes.  It looks to be a great garlic season.

Beans

The greasy grit beans are going strong.  This is also my first year growing beans so we’ll have to see how they grow.

Related articles:

1. On The Farm, June 26, 2009
2. On the Farm, June 19, 2009
3. On the Farm, June 6, 2009

Garlic, April 2009, planted in the fall

Garlic is something many people do not plant, yet it very easy to grow.  I’ve been growing garlic since I started my urban farm.  About 4 years ago, I cleaned up a plot in the fall and planted my first edible — garlic.

Garlic is best grown when you plant a clove in the fall, let it grow over the winter, and then blossom in the spring.  It is actually exactly what you buy in the grocery store — but don’t!  Much of what is sold in most grocery stores is chemically treated so it won’t grow.  When you grow your own garlic, you’ll find that if you leave it on the counter for a few months, it will actually sprout.  Sprouted garlic doesn’t sell well in the grocery store so big agriculture fixes that.

There are a number of varieties of garlic – softneck and hardneck.  Softneck is what we’re used to in the grocery store, so I tend to grow very little of it.  Hardneck is what is shown here.  I believe (based upon my notes from the fall) that this is a purple striped garlic.  Imagine the skin on the outside white with purple stripes.  You won’t have to imagine for too long.  By June, I’ll be able to pull some of the garlic out of the ground.

Elephant garlic – huge and often baked and used as a spread on bread – is actually not garlic at all.  It’s in the leek family.  I’m growing that as well for the first time this year so we’ll have pictures of that shortly.

This picture was taken today.  The garlic is about 4 to 6 inches tall and has been growing since Halloween last year.

There are two philosophies about growing garlic.  1) cut the scape (the stalk) when it is about 3 feet tall so that the plant can concentrate on growing the bulb.  2) don’t cut the scape and let it grow normally.  Read up and you’ll find passionate people advocating for both perspectives.  I haven’t found a significant difference over the past few years.  I generally cut scapes when I want to use them.  In an average year, about half the scapes get cut.

Scapes are great to cook with but beware — they are strong!  Throw them in a stir-fry and your neighbors will know it for weeks.  At the very least, head over to the farmers market during their spring growing season and pick up a bunch of garlic scapes just to try it.

If you’re interested in growing garlic this year, hurry up.  You can still grow spring garlic but it should be in the ground today (if you’re in Northern Illinois, at least).  You need to give it plenty of time for bulb development so a bulb planted today should be fully formed by October.

Once we get some garlic ready to pull out of the ground, I’ll talk more about curing the garlic (fancy for letting it dry) and storing it.  Stored properly, garlic should last you all winter.

Related articles:

1. On the Farm, June 12, 2009
2. In the Ground: Cilantro
3. On the Farm, July 17, 2009