Today the skies are thick with clouds hurriedly being pushed through our area by a cold and howling wind. Rain is pounding down. Needless to say, I have been bunkered down inside. On the otherhand, Barry spent an hour outside in the wood shed cutting up the remaining straw supply from last year. We are layering it in the sodded compost heap in attempts to speed the composting process along more quickly. Around here, compost is coveted. We have surrounded the compost area with three comfrey plants. Comfrey is a great compost activator by providing nitrogen and heat to the heap. Hopefully we can spare some for side dressing or mulching around our potassium-loving crops, such as our fruit-bearing trees and potatoes.
I couldn't help thinking of Whirling Dervishes when I saw our Persian Star garlic growing. They appear to be dancing around in the garlic bed. We are trying five new garlic cultivars from Boundary Garlic this year: Fish Lake 3, Leningrad, Susan Delafield, Tibetan, and, of course, Persian Star. Fish Lake 3, Leningrad, and Susan Delafield are Porcelain varieties. They apparently keep well, have a strong flavour, and thrive under a wide variety of growing conditions. That's good, because lately that's what we have been having!
The Tibetan, a Weakly Bolting Hardneck variety, emerges and is harvested late and has excellent flavour. The Persian Star is a variety called Purple Stripe and apparently is 'magnificent looking and elegant tasting." I can hardly wait.
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