Garlic Going Great Guns

I have a mnemonic device for remembering when to plant garlic. Just think vampires. What day of the year are you most likely to encounter a vampire? Halloween, of course. So, just remember, on Halloween get out all your garlic, brandish it at the vampires you meet and when they've gone off to find less well defended necks, go plant your garlic, so you'll be ready to defend yourself next year.In all actuality I read a book called Growing Great Garlic wherein the author suggested planting garlic in the northwest between Oct. 15th and Nov 15th (if memory serves).

Halloween makes it really easy to remember.

For the second year in a row, I remembered to plant garlic in the fall (Nov. 1st this year), but this year things are looking so much better, it almost feels like this is the first time.

Supposedly, garlic that is exposed to cold temperatures gets a sharper bite to it. This winter should have provided that sufficiently. 

Believing that the garlic has already weathered enough cold to imbue it with all the flavor it could need, I have erected a (ramshackle) hoop greenhouse over it, so that it can grow with wild abandon. 

As I write this, we are getting our umpteenth snowfall this winter, but under my hoops, the garlic looks like this:

Also, there are a few cilantro plants and a spinach that have survived the winter in there. 

Speaking of Cilantro, I need to write about the delicious avocado salsa I made for our breakfast today. That might be in the next post or so.