The schools in the area have been called off due to icy weather the past two days, and just can't get over how slick the roads were today!  The kids and I checked the garlic field yesterday just prior to the ice settling in, and there was still some snow cover and the ground was rock solid.

We have had sprouting around March 10th in previous years, but think that spring just may come a little later this year or I could be wrong.  Days like today I am glad that we didn't get any top growth last fall!

Since today was a good day to stay inside, most of the day was spent updating the garlic website (www.tamarackgarlicfarm.com) and getting the kinks worked out prior to officially kicking off our garlic order Pre-Sale on March 1st. If you are a good proofreader and want to make suggestions, I would appreciate it!

Simply put, it's been wet!

According to the local newspaper writer Debie Foss (Trempealeau County Times), the 2016 growing season was the wettest year on record... that is, until 2017... Last year we received over 49 inches of rain, which broke the previous record of 44.75 inches, which was set in 1968...

So far this year, we've had at least 15.32 inches of rain so far this year, which shattered the previous record to this point set in 1973... 

It's been so long, I can't remember what the sun looks like!  Hoping to see it this week!

We could summarize last season as being "wet", and this year it is shaping up to be just as wet, if not even wetter.  As you know, water runs down hill, and the garlic field is at the bottom of the hill... Luckily, our raised beds kept the plants elevated, and the water passed between the rows.

It will take another day or two to dry out, but we're in the field tackling any weeds that are growing.  The weeds compete for space, nutrients, and light that the garlic bulbs also need.  Simply put, less weeds means bigger bulbs for our customers.

Jason has been hard at word with the hoe removing weeds, while Dan has been experimenting with flame-burning the weeds.  These methods, along with cultivating when it is dryer out, should yield in some big bulbs this harvest!  

Our pre-sale is now on, and orders are coming in at www.tamarackgarlicfarm.com!  

Winter is a time for us to step a few steps back from thinking about garlic 24 hours a day (ok, so maybe only 22 hours a day now) and spend a little more time with family, and do a few activities that we enjoy. Although the sport of curling is something relatively new to the Winter Olympics, it has been a part of the Centerville/Galesville/Tamarack area for several generations, and originally had its roots in Scotland. Many curlers at our local curling club are farmers that participate in the winter activity since there are no crops to tend to, and is a great socializing and networking opportunity. 

Dan is the head ice maker at the Centerville Curling Club, while Jason serves on the Board of Directors, so we spend quite a bit of time here in the winter. We've curled together now for over 10 years, and both have been curling for over 25 years.  We thought we would be able "kill 2 birds with one curling stone" and be able to support our club with a financial donation, along with promote Tamarack Garlic Farm by having an advertising sign at the curling club.  The sign was recently hung up on the home end of the rink, and looks great!

This coming weekend we have a bus-load of curlers from Scotland coming to our club to take on our members as a part of their tour across the United States tour.  The total number of points accumulated between the USA teams vs, the Scottish players over the 30 day tour determines the winner, and gets the trophy.  We'll try our best to represent "Team USA"!

It's been garlic-crazy here the past couple weeks! Farmers Markets, talking to garlic growers, mailing out orders, and thinking about planting the next crop have been keeping Jason and Dan up late, but it's been fun!

We are at the point of the "season" where our larger orders are being picked up for fall planting... I guess there are other people out there too that want to plant 50...100...200...500 lbs of gourmet garlic, and we think that's great!  The more people get educated about WHERE and HOW their grocery store garlic is grown, the more we can help be the change and help people eat healthy, and eat local.

Below is a quick snapshot of a 100 lb. order of German Red, Persian Star, Metechi, Siberian, Great Northern White, and Music that is headed to Black River Falls.  We wish Nick the "best of luck" in his new garlic venture!

It's been busy around the garlic shed this past week with shipping out orders, taking some new pictures for the website, and getting things ready for "Farmers Market Season".

The Galesville Farmers Market started off pretty slow- we got the tent up just before the rain came again! The rain cleared around 10:30am, and then the people started coming. We sold quite a bit- and we had a lot of sales of our "Plenty Twenty" variety pack-which contains 2 bulbs of 10 garlic varieties.  We have quite a few "Plenty Twenty's" listed on our website, http://www.tamarackgarlicfarm.com/store/c7/Garlic_Variety_Packages.html for purchase as well as will have a few with us in Galesville this coming Saturday!

In my opinion, the toughest task of raising garlic is completed: the cleaning process.  Chopping off the stem, roots, and removing the outside wrapper of some 28,000 plants is a dirty job, and lots of work! A big thanks goes out to our wives Emily and Molly. along with Emily's aunt Barb and uncle Pete for all the help this past week! I'm barely able to type this paragraph because my fingers and arms are sore from this work, but am excited we're done with that step.

The rest of the week for us includes getting our "ducks in a row" for shipping our pre-orders early next week, and gearing up for heading to the Midwest Garlic Festival in Galena, Illinois Saturday and Sunday. After weighing our garlic up, we were good with our pre-sale estimates and were able to fill everyone who ordered garlic prior to harvest.  We only have our best performing garlic, Chesnok Red, remaining for purchase for planting.  We do have all 11 varieties of garlic available for sale for eating and cooking available on our website, www.tamarackgarlicfarm.com

Anyone can grow garlic. It's the "cleaning" process that comes with growing garlic in which many people may not find very enjoyable and would rather have someone else grow it for them.  I guess it's all about having a positive attitude while going about it (especially if you're growing 28,000 plants) that will help a person see the light at the end of the tunnel.

We start off by cutting the bundles of garlic hanging up down from the barn rafters,  We cut the stems off and leave about 1.5" to 2" of stem and then sort the garlic by different sizes: culinary, kitchen grade, seed stock, and premium jumbo sizes, ranging from about 1.5" in diameter to more than 3" diameter in size.

Then each garlic gets the roots cut to 1/4" to 3/8" in length. Each garlic's remaining roots get brushed to get any remaining dust and dirt out.  We then peel away the outside layer (or two) to make the bulb look clean.  Sometimes the wrapper falls right off...and sometimes it is a tedious process... which can vary from bulb to bulb. We will spend most of the next 2 weeks going through this "cleaning" process.

From start of planting a clove until the customer opens up a box of gourmet garlic, the plant may be touched up to 14 times from start to finish...and that's not including weeding four or five times!