growing garlic and canning

It is so easy to grow your own food. Last fall, Jeff Cochran visited us and talked about how easy it would be to put a garlic row in our front yard. We dug up the ruellia and the Bermuda grass. We followed Jeff’s advice on getting a real pitchfork. We turned the soil over and over then stuck in about 100 of Jeff’s garlic cloves. Green stalks came up then things slowed down until spring. We weeded several times using the tines on the pitchfork to unroot the grass that was sprouting up. We waited until the tops dried up some and started to fall over, around May 1. Then we dug up the garlic and put it on the back porch, out of the sun, to dry up for a while.

Last night, before we left I canned the garlic. http://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/pickle.htm. I did not follow the directions the first time, I filled the liquid up to the top, I neglected to leave 1/2in headspace, so I had to recan the garlic. http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/foods/348-594/348-594.html “Boiling Water Bath Canning.” I am ready to grow twice as much garlic next year.

That earth, that lawn, it was always there ready to grow food. I want to grow more food.