Thinking backwards in the garlic.

... I mean garden.

You know when you really intend to do something - and do it well - and then…

… you’re hosting Thanksgiving.

… you still have to homeschool your kids.

… you have to start butchering animals before the winter.

… the dairy cow needs to be picked up from her breeding grounds and brought home.

… and the first snow of the year arrives a wee-bit early.

Before you know, the sad little garlic that you meant to plant a month ago is quietly sitting in the corner of the kitchen - staring into your soul each time you walk pass it - desperately waiting to be sunk down into the cold, Autumn soil so that it can get a leg-up on spring growing.

I’m sure you know exactly what that’s like.

Because try as us homesteaders may, there’s always tasks that are delayed, incomplete, done quickly, or not done at all. And anyone who says different is a LIAR. Ha. The homestead is often a place of “putting out fires” and often times, the urgent fires get the most attention. Period. And because my garlic wasn’t on fire yet, well…

Garlic (and shallots) are my first crops to go in the ground for the next year. We will harvest these crops in 2023 so we are thinking well ahead to ultimately, what will end up on our plate in the coming year.

What kind of garlic should you plant and grow? Well, that depends on what kind of garlic you want to eat. As with everything we do on the homestead, we need to work backwards: from plate to planting.

More on that in this week’s video.

Happy planting (and planning!),

Shaye