Garlic Sprouts, Baby Carrots, and Brussel Sprout leftovers

 

Finally, we have garlic sprouts!! Yay! We had planted over 180 garlic bulbs in late October and hadn't seen any sign of growth until now. We were a little worried after we visited another nearby farm in December and noticed that their garlic had sprouted already. After doing a little more research, we were reminded of the importance of the timing of fall planting so that the roots of the garlic have a chance to develop, but so that the tops do not break the surface of the soil. Many of the hardneck varieties of garlic actually need the ground to freeze in order for proper bulb development. It is a good thing that our garlic has waited until now to sprout. The hard part for us is waiting until July to harvest all of this delcious garlic, because it takes 9 MONTHS for it grow!

We also have carrots that we planted in late September still growing at the farm. Carrots can be left in the ground all winter long, but you will want to harvest all of them before early spring. Once spring arrives, the carrots will start to grow again and if they flower they will become inedible. Also note that when you are overwintering carrots in the ground, the carrot tops will eventually die off in the cold. The carrot root below will be just fine and will taste fine after the tops die, but you may have trouble finding the carrots after this.

We pulled out a Danver carrot to check on its growth. It still looked a little small, but tasted great! We are unsure if the weeds or the clay based soil are suppressing their growth, but we hope the warmer weather might kick start these little carrots to be bigger.

Lastly, It had been over 3 weeks since we visited the farm and we were unsure if our brussel sprouts would make it without being watered and during the cold nighttime temperatures.  Well, it wasn't the cold temperatures that got to them; it was the deer! We thought that the deer would leave them alone if we put double row cover over them, but that wasn't the case. They ate through the row cover and ate 99% of what we still had growing. They were nice enough to spare one of the plants for us and we got about 20+ brussel sprouts out of that plant. :) I added a picture of a mostly eaten brussel sprout plant because it is strangely beautiful and looks like a type of cactus or desert plant.