Tag Archives: garlic

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tending to the cropp crop.

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tending to the cropp crop. I.

the garlic we planted last fall at our employee garden at organic valley hq [1] is coming in nicely! and perhaps we even have one of the nicer looking employee plots ( inside joke. we have at times over the years had a notoriously ill kept plot. )! certainly better looking than last year when the plot was water logged.

we had enough good “seed garlic” from last years’ harvest to put in about 200 head which should yield more than enough for us to give away heaps to lucky friends and family and provide us with garlic for the year.

tending to the cropp crop. II.

it sure is a purty view out over the 8,600 acre kickapoo valley reserve. it’s hard to believe this was the view two months ago.

we need to figure out what to put in the rest of the garden plot to the left of the garlic. squash? carving pumpkins? watermelon? suggestions welcome 🙂

tending to the cropp crop. III.

looking back up at organic valley/cropp hq affords a view of the addition we’re adding ’cause we’re busting at the seams from growth.

[1] technically speaking organic valley is a brand owned by cropp cooperative which is really my employer but that’s a detail lost on most folks who just think i work for ov.

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grilled tomatoes, basil, garlic & parm.

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grilled tomatoes, basil, galic & parm – a perfect recipe for the symbolic end of summer that labor day has come to represent. and, well, i’ve got to find something to do with all that garden garlic ( and tomatoes and basil ).

1. heat the grill to a med/med-high temperature
2. peel and mince the garlic cloves and brown in a pan with olive oil
3. cut the tomatoes in half crosswise
4. put tomatoes cut-side down and grill 3-4 minutes
5. flip the tomatoes and apply liberal amount of garlic, basil and organic valley parmesan cheese
6. grill for another 2-3 minutes
7. enjoy!

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wherein we harvest a small mountain of garlic.

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wherein we harvest a small mountain of garlic.

finally garlic harvest day arrived for our first crop of garlic at our organic valley employee garden!

250 head of garlic makes for a nice sized crop. even after factoring what we’ll use for seed for next years crop and our own personal consumption, we should some left over to pawn off to unsuspecting victims.

after drying for a few weeks we can move from experimenting with scape recipes to finding new and interesting things to do with our small mountain of garlic.

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garlic scape asparagus cream soup

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garlic scape asparagus cream soup!

i’ve received lots of requests for the garlic scape asparagus cream soup i mentioned in the social intertubes the other day.

well, here’s the almost embarrassingly simple, yet supremely delicious recipe.

wash a half dozen or asparagus stalks and throw them in a boiling pot of water. toss in some of the usual herb suspects, sage, rosemary, thyme, etc and some salt and pepper. maybe a bay leaf or two. add a tablespoon or so of garlic pesto. boil until the asparagus is tender – perhaps 6-10 minutes. blend well with one of those hand blender thingies. a regular blender would, of course, work just fine.

add corn starch to thicken the soup, about 1 tablespoon per cup of liquid soup. pre-dissolve the corn starch in half a cup of water and add to soup which has been brought back to a boil. keep boiling for a few minutes, then turn to low heat.

and now, for the most important step: stir in an indulgent amount of organic valley heavy whipping cream.

listen to me, this is no time to get all “all things in moderation” on yourself. experiment a little. i think i added something like 8 oz of heavy whipping cream for 6 cups of soup. but who knows what i really added, i was getting a little delirious at the smells coming from the soup pot.

seriously, if you make garlic scape asparagus cream soup without organic valley heavy whip? you’re doing it wrong.

add asparagus tips for a little texture.

enjoy!

( and bring on the asparagus urine in 3..2..1.. )

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garlic scapes, how do i love thee? let me count two ways.

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garlic scapes, how do i love thee? let me count two ways. I.

let’s say you have garlic scapes from 250 head of garlic sitting in your fridge. what, pray tell, do you do with all those scapes? first, find yourself a good scape pesto recipe, and then experiment with putting the pesto in anything and everything to give it a wonderful garlicky flavor.

for breakfast, we forked about a teaspoon in 6 fresh-from-the-farm eggs for garlic scape scrampled eggs. perfect!

garlic scapes, how do i love thee? let me count two ways. II.

and for dinner, we added some scape pesto to mayonnaise which added just the right zing to organic, grassfed burgers and fries.

next up, garlic scape cream cheese something something?

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on the topic of water-logged garlic at organic valley hq.

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on the topic of water-logged garlic at organic valley hq

the 250 head of garlic at organic valley hq seems to be doing ok with all the rain we’ve been getting but it’s certainly water-logged and i suppose all the mulch that’s keeping the weeds under control isn’t helping to dry things out.

this is our first year with garlic – is it going to get all moldy or otherwise susceptible to disease? anything i could do if that is the case?

by the way, if you go out to the garden and you see 18 mounds of straw that look like 2 foot high haystacks, i planted potatoes above the ground and mounded over with straw. we’re trying the Laziest Potato Growing Method Ever technique this year.