Long Island Gardening Community Resource

I was hiking in Catskill Park about a month ago, near Woodstock, up at the Overlook Mountain Fire Tower. Besides from the multiple incredible viewpoints and a 360 degree fire tower view of the eastern part of the park, we came upon ruins of a historic Historic Mountain Hotel of the 1800’s. It was a fantastic afternoon hike and worth the sacrifice of walking on a paved trail all the way up the mountain. On top of the mountain, there were guides from The Catskill Center for Conservation & Development. They were manning the fire tower and giving information on preserving the towers, a husband and wife team, really nice people.

My friend and I overheard her talking about a garlic festival in Saugerties, The Hudson Valley Garlic Festival. She said there were going to be over 20,000 people there and so after a conversation with her, I was already driving there before I had even reached the car. Being a garlic lover and beginner grower, I was real excited to get my hands on some locally grown seed (upstate is somewhat local in my book). And I figured this would be the perfect place, and so it was.

I purchased the seed from a farmer in New York. He was a real nice man. I told him I was going to be using it for growing. So he took some from his special stash of primo-garlic heads and hooked me up! His lady friends weren’t so thrilled about that. One woman said something like “those are the best one’s.” He was giving me a break on the price, and so I gladly paid a bit more than he was asking. There’s something to be said about purchasing seed directly from the grower, face to face. At least in this instance, the respect and appreciation was right-on. Being a nation of consumers, I believe we vote with our dollar. And so it felt good for me that he knew I appreciated all their efforts that went into growing it and was willing to and more than happy to pay a little extra for it, even though he was trying to give me a break because I was growing them.

One last thing and then Ill get to the grow guides. When I came back to the island, I talked with my gardening buddy and he told me there was a Long Island Garlic Festival the same weekend as the one upstate that I just-so-happened to drop in on. Another coincidence, it was held at The Garden of Eve….the Organic Farm I had volunteered on earlier in the summer. Funny stuff. I can’t make this stuff up. Eve writes about her experiences during the festival in her forum.

Well, this article was supposed to be a place to come to find out information about planting garlic. I have only successfully grown one small crop of garlic, besides from helping my neightbor with his. Since I am a novice at growing garlic, I have compiled a few resources to assist with the steps necessary for preparing the beds to caring for, harvesting, and curing the garlic. Of course, I will follow-up with my experiences along the way.

List of Resource for Growing Garlic

Hood River Organic Seed Garlic - Garlic Calendar - A great monthly guide to sowing and reaping garlic. Good source for seed.

Seeds of Change Newsletter - Issue 37 - Growing Garlic - Good Source for seed

Mother Earth News Article - Plant Now For Great Garlic (Oct/Nov 2005) by Barbara Pleasant

I will continue to add links to this post as I find them.