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Spring is here, Garlic is poking out it’s baby tops.

Thanks to my friends Sarah and Nancy for assistance in bed prepping and planting the garlic last fall.  Well done ladies, it’s looking great.IMG_1146

Willie Nillie grows five varieties of Garlic all Hardneck:

German: Larger Cloves it has a strong flavor, but it’s not spicy.

Armenian: Larger bulbs and cloves it has a very strong flavor, but isn’t spicy.  Earlier to harvest, stores well.

Chesnok Red: Large bulbs, but smaller cloves, it’s the sweetest roasting garlic and is  slightly more spicy than the previous two and the skin is purple.

Mateshi Red: Similar to Chesnok and varies in spice and size.

Krasnodar Red: Large bulbs, with Red-ish purple-striped bulbs, keeps good flavor after cooking.

I look forward to sharing all the great flavors.

 

Hardneck Garlic

Hardneck garlic (Allium sativum ophioscorodon) tend to have more flavor than their soft-necked cousins. They’re characterized by hard woody central stalks and a long flower stalk (scape) that loops and curls, usually twice. They tend to have four to twelve cloves in each bulb.

Hardneck garlic can sometimes verging on being spicy or hot. Others say they’re spicier, more complex, and altogether more “garlicky.” Porcelain, Rocambole, and Purple Stripe varieties are all part of the hardneck family.

Hardneck garlic tends to grow best in areas with very cold winters, since they require a longer time of vernalization (i.e., they need a long, cold winter to be dormant so they can flower in the spring).

Learn more about garlic here:

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A bolt of Lightening Creates Primitive Times.

A few weeks ago during our last freaky winter storm of snow and sleet and thunder and lightening, my wind turbine took a direct hit.  In doing so, the rotor, at least, melted and sent a jolt of electricity down to my house where it blew my off-grid control panel and meter.  It then preceded to blow the wires out of my solar panels.  Thankfully the solar panels are ok, but the turbine is toast.

Crazy as that is, the bolt also radiated down to my neighbors TV Antenna and took it out along with one of their controllers and four solar panels.  Who knew this time of year I had to worry.  The turbine didn’t really function all winter and on like the second warm day it was turning nicely only to be an electric conductor.

So, for two weeks or so now I have lived by candlelight and headlamp.  I’m grateful it happened during long days, but it’s even harder to get up in the dark than usual.

Fear not, I have ordered three new solar panels, a new controller and a new meter as well as  mounting pipe.  So soon, I will be good to go with almost 1000xs more power.  Look out sun, here I come.