The garlic harvest has commenced! We started pulling the first bulbs on Tuesday
and this week we have made it through around a quarter of the total garlic
crop; it’s a very time consuming task when there is 24,000 bulbs to pull by
hand!
The garlic wouldn’t normally need harvesting in one go, the
different varieties grown here would mature over the space of a few weeks. However
due to the heat and the drought ALL the garlic has matured at the same time.
How we harvest is in teams of two – one person forks the
soil to help lift the garlic free, then another follows behind and pulls it
from the ground. The ground is so dry
that it takes a lot of effort to get the fork deep enough into the soil; the boys have literally been jumping on the
forks in order to drive it in enough.
Once we’ve filled up the truck with garlic we take it up to
the barn to be hung in the loft for curing.
We started hanging them in bunches of five from the beams, but Jackson
devised a quicker and more efficient method by tying up two strings together
from one rafter to another and then twisting individual bulbs in between the
two string so they are held in place. Hopefully
that makes sense!
Matt and Jackson starting on hanging the garlic
The barn slowly getting fuller
Zach stringing up garlic bunches
Jackson's new improved hanging method
So it’s been an epic week of harvest as of course we have been
doing our routine harvest for market and CSA alongside the garlic. Leah and I are the CSA produce organisers; we
spend Wednesday mornings in the root cellar dividing up the harvest equally between
the CSA members, while the boys go out and harvest whatever else is needed.
Sorting produce for CSA in the root cellar
Kylah put out a plea in her newsletter for volunteers as we need
help with the garlic harvest and weeding.
Despite the drought the weeds are still going crazy and we are pressed
for time to deal with them. Somehow CBC
radio got wind of our need for help and they came out to the farm on Thursday to
interview Kylah and CBC TV also came on the same day to film for a news slot on
the drought. Thankfully we’ve had 7
people so far come and help out, one lady saying she is going to try and get a
big group of people to come and work on the farm for a day next week, which
would be fantastic. We need to get the
rest of the garlic harvested, and with just us interns and Zach that could take
a long time, we need more people power!
The hot weather has continued throughout the week, then on Sunday
evening we had a small thunderstorm and it rained for around half an hour. The first rain in over a month! We were all together having dinner, then we
ran outside to go stand in the rain, deeply appreciative that it was finally
raining and for the break in the heat!
After yet another long hot day on the farm on Saturday,
Jackson, Leah, Ebe (Zach’s brother) and I went for a dip in a pond that Jack
discovered last week. It’s like a hidden
oasis in the middle of the barren dry pasture on Bob’s farm, it was so nice and
refreshing to jump in.
check out the pond!
Much love
Becky x
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