The bounty.
The guest bedroom has been pulling double duty as the curing room. The onions and potatoes spent two weeks there developing slightly tougher skins to allow for longer storage life. It's the garlic's turn now.
Required equipment for entering the room. Pungent is an understatement.
In a month's time, I'll process most of the garlic into chopped pieces packed in oil and stored in the freezer. My last crop was obviously too small, as I ran out of garlic back in December. No shortage this year.
All the cloves I planted were ordered from Seed Savers in Iowa... the folks dedicated to preserving heirloom and endangered varieties. This year, I tried four new varieties: Inchelium Red, Music, Broadleaf Czech and Georgian Crystal. Two varieties hail from the Gatersleben Seed Bank. Helping sustain biodiversity is so rewarding when a plant is delicious!
The garden is now ready for sweet potato planting. It wasn't necessary to till in more manure, but I couldn't resist working with my old tiller. Reunited...
My precious! It's at least 40 years old, but the original owner put a new motor on it at some point. I inherited it from him, then sold it to a friend 5 years ago. He gave it back to me on Saturday. I had refurbished and painted it when I had it. Not a scratch on it, stored out of the elements and fired up on the spot. Bonus: time to reconnect with a friend I hadn't seen in too long.
Can a day get any better? Of course it can, if you reunite Romey and Bella. The neighbor's granddaughter and my Clydesdale have struck up quite a friendship. I saddled Bella up for Romey and we went for a long stroll around the pasture. As if her smile wasn't thanks enough, I acquired fine art.
I think they complement each other.
Like a certain pet frog and his lotus habitat.
Wilbur is the frog that who dwells in my small water garden. I worry that a predator will snag him when he sits out in the open.
No worries now that the lotus is out of dormancy.
It would take a crow with X-ray vision to see him under these. The solar night light sits under a canopy by the lip of the pool. At night, he sits by it and vacuums up all the bugs. I have created a Welfare frog.
He's in good company: my oxen, horses, dogs...
