Garlic

My garlic harvest last week was ... odd. The soft neck type had dried up for the most part, so time to harvest! You see them here in a braid. Note how each has a small head, with separate cloves or heads attached to the side. The problem is that the side cloves often have yet another new clove forming inside. So I have mature garlic and young garlic in the same head, a sure cause of spoilage in time.

I removed some of the soft new cloves, and you see them here. No papery skin had formed, so they slipped right out.

The stone bowl holds the few normal looking cloves. They are beautiful! And, finally, with the other naked cloves you see a few of the huge stiff neck type cloves. Heads were dying, but bulb completely immature. Oh well! Pasta with garlic and oil tonight!

Picked breakfast

Now this is a fig. Grabbed it on the way to my car. A full breakfast in a neat package!

From few, many

A few months ago I bought four or five seed potatoes, cut them into chunks -with an eye in each piece - buried them well, and waited. Now I have this spectacular basket of yukon golds, ready to roast or mash. I also have an open garden space ready for the next planting, beans.

Peas and potatoes

Before making it into the house today, I grabbed a basket from the shed and dug for gold. My very first, perfect, beautiful Yukon gold potatoes. I nabbed a few snap peas to go with them (although between the dogs and my husband they are fewer than I would like). The eggs needed a place to nestle too. I feel awfully lucky looking into this basket.

Last night's dinner was strawberries from the farm down the road, served on an oven puff pancake made from our hens' eggs. So good. The hens are laying like crazy, and the eggs are strong and good. We miss Hilda, but her eggs had been weak for some time.

Meals in May truly are like no other.

Turnips and greens; more to come

In addition to the huge, thick, tender green leaves of chard that just keep coming, the garden now is yielding small, sweet turnips and mixed salad greens. These turnips, lightly steamed with butter and salt, are unexpectedly wonderful. Salads, just picked, with a squeeze of lemon and some good olive oil, are perfect. This is just a small taste, however, of the yield to come.

I expect to rob some new potatoes from under the plants very soon, and peas are forming on the vines. The first zucchini are just visible. Will they make it before squash vine borers destroy the plant? The garlic plants are HUGE. I wonder how the bulbs look under there?

Spring is in full swing, helped along by two nice rains in the last two weeks. I am very happy about the state of the gardens!