The problem

Here us the problem with hens. Hens beget eggs. Excess eggs beget angel food cake, which begets orphan egg yolks, which beget flan. Darn hens.

Oh, and I have three new chicks! Unsexed, so cross your fingers that at least two are female.

Basil harvest

Last year I never got around to harvesting much basil, and what I had in the freezer was lost to the hurricane, so my supplies were really low. So when I walked by the garden on Sunday and saw how beautiful the plants were, I pinched the top of every stem.

Here you see the washed leaves on parchment in a sheet pan - for hours of drying in a 150 F convection oven, and then after they were nice and dry. My hands smelled so good after crunching up those leaves. My basil jar now is full, so I can relax and enjoy fresh basil the rest of the season.

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!