Garlic Grower Saves Her Best To Replant

Garlic Grower Saves Her Best To Replant CROPS New Crops Jean Stremlo never sells her best garlic Those bulbs are carefully set aside at mid-summer harvest to be replanted in the fall But with 5 500 plants in the ground this spring there will still be plenty to sell “I save back the cream of the crop as they are the ones best acclimated to our soils and weather ” says Stremlo “The bigger the cloves you plant the bigger the cloves you harvest ” Stremlo’s garlic has had to work hard to acclimate recently She raised garlic for years on top of a mountain at the northern edge of the Catskills in New York State After her father died she and her husband Rodney moved to her home farm in Middlesex County New Jersey to help her sister care for their mother She brought 7 unique heirloom varieties with her She and her family now operate Brook Hollow Farm their farm-to-market business They sell garlic at several farmers’ markets as well as from Stremlo’s home Garlic is sold as single bulbs in braids and in packs of multiples Braids are decorated with wheat straw and other material “My sister is into arts and crafts and designs the braids ” says Stremlo “They are popular as home decorations as well as gifts ” Moving to an old farm whose fields had been in hay for decades was a challenge “We knew we would need at least a year of amending the hay fields and planting cover crops before we could begin to use them for garlic ” says Stremlo Pacific Gold mustard is one of the cover crops She plants it for its ability to control nematodes that attack garlic Disease and pest control is another reason Stremlo prefers to replant her own garlic “Some of the infestations you can get from other farms can be devastating ” says Stremlo “It can be tempting when you see a new garlic to buy it and plant it but you need to be careful Know who the grower is and how they grow it Once the pest is in your soil it’s there for good ” Before the garlic is planted in the fall a layer of compost is tilled into the beds The compost is a mix of shredded leaves manure from nearby horse and alpaca farms and food waste Once the garlic cloves have been planted the beds are covered with 4 to 6-in of mulch to keep it from heaving out of the ground The mulch also holds back weeds while feeding the soil life “Garlic is such a rewarding crop ” says Stremlo “When they first pop up you may see gaps but over time they all grow ” She explains that the major growth in the spring is building the plant Bulb growth is primarily in the final month before harvest “Pick them a week early and you can lose a quarter of the harvest ” says Stremlo She digs her garlic when about half of the leaves have died back Each leaf is responsible for a layer of paper like tissue over the bulb Two layers can be lost cleaning the bulb and another when transporting it “I like to have three to four layers on the bulb when selling it ” says Stremlo “You want the layers intact or you have a shorter shelf life ” Stremlo grows mostly hard-neck garlic as they are easy to peel although they don’t store as well as the soft neck garlic that she raises for braiding She also likes the hard-neck types for their flavor “Some are better for baking while others are best in salads and raw ” says Stremlo “Some are robust and others spicy and hot I try to grow varieties that are not found locally ” While she sells all her garlic as whole bulbs Stremlo processes some for personal use and as gifts for family and friends “I slice the cloves and dry them in a dehydrator ” she says “Then I pulverize them into a powder and bottle it ” Stremlo has found an outlet for garlic scapes which most gardeners cut off and discard The scape is the flower head of the plant and it is believed that removing it puts more energy into the bulb “We clip them and sell to an Asian market ” says Stremlo “The tender parts are good in stir fries and soups ” Stremlo is experimenting with a few plants each year letting the seed heads form She harvests the tiny cloves and plants them in the fall The next year the bulb that forms though small can be replanted as cloves in the fall “This is my third year trying this and they popped up faster than others from the same variety ” says Stremlo “I think they are even more acclimated to our soils ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Brook Hollow Farm ph 732 947-2778; jstremlo@gmail com

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