Potato Harvest & Garlic Planting

Today my girl and I harvested the rest of the La Ratte Potatoes. We have been eating them all along but I need some time to cure the rest of them a little so they will keep longer.

It may be hard to tell but these are large bowls so we have quite a few of these lovely potatoes. These were my favorite crop this year and I will definitely grow potatoes again.

In their place I planted garlic. Being that the deer won't eat potatoes or garlic, a spot outside the fence was ideal. You should not plant the same crop in the same place each year so this was also my plan.

I planted about 50 cloves which should grow 50 heads. That may seem like a lot but I have used up quite a bit of my garlic this year on pesto that I have been freezing and as you can see, I don't have much left. And I didn't even give any away. Now I'm thinking I may need to plant a little more.

Included in the 50 heads is an Italian garlic from Jeannine (that I grown each year) & I ordered some Siberian Garlic From Seed Savers Exchange-The cloves are HUGE and gorgeous white & purple. Recently I picked up 2 heads at the Farmers Market-I wish I could remember the names though, I'm funny like that. I planted the Siberian separately so I can keep track of it.

You can also see the last of my onions here. I think I planted about 60 of those this past spring. I used most of them for Green Onions this spring and summer, which was my plan and just left a few in the ground to grow. (I actually prefer Mayan sweet onions or Vidalia which will not grow locally. Onions, you may not know, are fairly finicky. A Vidalia is considered a "short day" onion which will not grow in the north.)

Those little things to the right are shallots which were fun to grow because I love them but turned out very small. (I only got them at Home Depot and I'm not sure those plants are always right for my area) but I will use them anyway. Next year I may find a more reputable source for those but I almost wonder if they work the same as onions in terms of where they grow best (Must google this.)