A year's worth of garlic

And a few bonus potatoes...

Freshly dug garlic and 'taters.

In the spirit of rotating crops, I planted my garlic last fall where my potatoes had been.  This was done in November, when it was getting cold but the ground wasn't frozen yet.  I planted a couple hundred cloves saved from some heritage garlic that had been given to me the year before.  I'd planted about 50 the previous year, and saved enough to increase my crop.

Apparently, I didn't get all the little potatoes up last year and they grew with the garlic.

Garlic bulbs.

The bulbs are on the small side when compared to the giant hybrid garlic that you commonly see in the grocery stores.  But these are packed with flavor not to be compared with the garlics grown for size and not taste, like most grocery store produce.

This is a lot of free food for surprisingly little effort.  All organic, too.

Garlic is harvested when the lower few leaves turn brown, while the tops are still green.  They need to dry under cover in an airy location.  I tied mine in small bundles along pieces of re-purposed baling twine and hung them in the garage.  Later I'll trim the roots and tops and store them in a cardboard box....or I may braid them and store them on display in my kitchen.

 Five strings hang from the garage ceiling, each with about 40 bulbs of garlic.

The bonus potatoes are "new" potatoes and harvested while the tops were still growing.  These won't keep well, so many were given away.  We don't eat potatoes that often, just as an occasional treat.  The hubster is still losing weight and I am still working to keep my blood sugar absolutely stable to allow healing in my adrenal glands.  Starchy foods work against both goals.  We still enjoy them, but rarely and only with LOTS of butter to reduce the impact on our goals.  Butter.  Yum.  Lots.

Since February, when we really started focusing on eating for blood sugar regulation (we'd been eating traditionally prepared foods for some time, so this was another major tweak in our lifestyle), we've both seen an enormous impact on our health.  Peter lost 50 lbs so far and his blood pressure is getting closer to ideal.  I feel better, sleep MUCH better, and have even more energy, and am no longer struggling to maintain my weight.  Not bad considering we have over a hundred years between the two of us!