Monthly Archives: July 2015

It’s a family effort

IMG_0424 Dad is 81 years old, and very fond of complaining about how he lacks the physical strength to be helpful around the farm. Well, that just is not the case, he’s been tremendously helpful along the way. After we did the first round of honey extraction, a time crunch presented itself. Our new bottles arrived, and the first opening at the Ocean Grove Berry Farm was imminent, so time was of the essence to get the honey bottled and labelled so it could be available for the first day of U-Pick raspberries at the Ocean Grove. While he may not have the physical strength for driving a shovel or pitchfork anymore, Dad can drive the Nassenheider Fill-Up machine as well as anybody. With Dad filling, Chris doing lids and labels, then myself keeping a supply of empties and stacking full cases, bottling a round of honey can be done in short order. After the honey was all bottled, next came the first garlic harvest. Getting it all out of the ground is the first step in the process, but, it still needs to be hung out to dry. Once again, we put the family to work, and here is Dad busy tying bundles of garlic preparing them to go into the drying area. There is plenty of work to go around, and everybody gets a chance to contribute along the way.

Garlic Harvest 2015

chinook The 2015 Garlic harvest started July 1 — fitting activity for a boiling hot Canada Day. First I harvested the Turban type Chinook and the Creole type Rose de Lautrec from the raised beds on the patio.  Both had nice big bulbs but the Rose will take some drying and cleaning up to show off its pretty pink skins. The Chinook on the other hand (as you can see by the main picture) it out there proudly red. These varietals won’t be for sale this year as we are using all of the bulbs for next years crop. July 2 brought the harvest of the German Red. A row an a half of planting equalled on large wheelbarrow full of garlic bulbs. Many large and small, German Red is a Rocambole that is hotter tasting than others of its type and cooked has a strong garlic flavour. A little goes a long way with this variety.