Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Garlic

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We noted that the shelves were bare of garlic yesterday.
Wife and I joked that either people had heard a late night radio show professing the benefits of garlic against the flu, or that people were hoarding against the vampire army that was coming.
Apparently the United States gets 70% of our garlic from China and we have stopped importing. I may need to plant some this year.

i use garlic on a lot of stuff i cook.

The fresh garlic we buy (Costco) is grown in the USA.

Not Gilroy California?
Home of the Stinking Rose and the Garlic festival?

News about California's lockdown probably has people hoarding garlic.

Couple days ago I was reading about the benefits of zinc for the immune system. I take an occasional Calcium, Magnesium, and Zinc supplement. Bought a couple more bottles yesterday figuring those will get cleaned out soon. If it fights flu or helps the immune system the shelves will be bare.

We plant 3-400 every fall. Lots of garlic!

Can you describe process?
Are they from seeds?
Spacing? Water?

Good grief!


How do you store it?

Buy bulbs from local store or seed catalog. That what comes from the grocery will work.

Break bulbs apart, plant individual cloves 6" or so apart in the fall (Rule of thumb, plant by Thanksgiving, harvest around solstice).

Easy stuff to grow. Can grow it right in a flower bed if that's all you have.

Geno

PS forgot to add, you can plant it in the spring too, but fall plantings get a head start. We get down to around zero F or below every year. I plant mine at least 4-6" deep and usually cover the bed with mulch after everything dies down, but it seems pretty cold tolerant anyway.

I love garlic!

No Festival this year, canceled until 2021.

Geno

we must get at least some from Ajo, AZ, right???

I raise it. Still have some from last fall left. I'll share.

If you dry it properly, it keeps a long time in a dark box. If you screw up the drying and it shows signs of sprouting, grind and freeze it.

My maternal Grandfather planted a lot of garlic. Remember his Shop/Shed being full of braids of hundreds of heads.

Ate it every day and every one of his kids and their families would get a braid of 20+ heads for Christmas every year.

Ain't nothing like it sold in stores. Even the stuff from Gilroy couldn't compare.

Old world Italian farming techniques died with him.

We must have been lazy last fall. Only 275 in the garden. Gonna be a rough year, quarantine and all.

Thanks Valsted...

Is it a spring festival? It has been years... or summer,? Tied in with the Tour De California (I assume that is cancelled too?)

Might have been a variety from the old country,

If we knew what kind we could look for it from "enthusiasts".
Worked with a guy up in Juneau we called "Garlic Joe" , he had over 50 varieties planted I think. Loads of slightly different tastes.

Stuff from Gilroy is easily beaten by fresh homegrown garlic, even using the store variety (from Gilroy??) as starters.

Hope you're enjoying the "confinement" down there.

Geno

SARS-CoV-2 came from bats. Count Dracula could take the form of a bat. Vampires, and hence bats, are repelled by garlic. Bam, instant garlic shortage. That's how it works these days.

It keeps vampires away!