Music, a hardneck garlic, was the last Monticello harvest I processed in 2024

I was very hopeful for the Music garlic, a porcelain hardneck, since it is a longer season (in the ground longer) than the Broadleaf Czech and Inchellium Red artichoke type softnecks. Because it had not shown the typical sign of “ready to harvest” (the top 4-5 newest leaves that are half green and half yellow), I left it in the ground a few days beyond harvesting the others. When on June 19th, I lifted them from the ground, their bulbs were nicely filled out.

Music plants dried three weeks on my curing screens outside on the upper deck with a fan blowing on them.

I was very disappointed from the first of eight days of processing Music, because it became immediately obvious that they, too, had been impacted and stressed by the too wet conditions just 10 days before harvest. About half of the 60 bulbs were very large—unfortunately, a sign that they had taken up too much water and, though not as many bulbs as the other types, some bulbs had split their outer skins, leaving them exposed to predators.

Most bulbs seemed “whole” or sound, and the necks “gave way” very little. Yet, there were tan or brown streaks on the outer skins—signs that the center of the bulb was decaying for some reason. Those bulbs had to be cleaned down to any rotten leaves which I removed. Unlike the softnecks, this hardneck’s leaves were not still wet. During the curing time they had dried out and provided more protection for the cloves. These bulbs yielded many more cloves I left in their papers—143 cloves—and distributed to friends, neighbors, and family to use so that I only had to burn the infected cloves and was delighted to share the salvaged Music crop.

More of the Music cloves were sound and their papers preserved them so that I could distribute them to friends and neighbors to use. Not many individuals are ready to cook a recipe for a dozen or more peeled “naked” cloves on the spur of the moment. So, although I did the work of peeling many extra large and large cloves to make sure that they were sound, I expect many of these naked cloves were discarded by the friends and neighbors to whom I gifted them. Naked cloves would dry out quickly and turn brown as they lost their vitality.

I was only able to find 2 Music garlic bulbs that seemed completely sound and braided them for SEED for the fall planting. That means there were no Monticello Music braids from this harvest.

It was disappointing to spend three times as much time to clean the hundreds of bulbs from the best looking plants I’ve grown in 12 years. And that was due to weather conditions that I could not control and didn’t even know had happened until a friend told me about the three weeks of non-stop rain in late May and early June.

Yet, I hustled to find as many people as I could who would use the cloves, in their intact papers or naked. There were two purchases from people at restaurants in town for their own personal use. I was delighted the Blessings Soup Kitchen on 1st Street in Monticello, KY, accepted the first box of loose papered cloves for the thousand meals they serve each day they are open. It pushed me out of my comfort zone to ask people at church, “Who cooks with fresh garlic?” And then I had to go find those people and ask if they wanted my hundreds of cloves of garlic. I was delighted to stop at my neighbor’s house and find that she cooks with fresh garlic all the time. She took the first batch I offered and a week later took another batch of cloves from a different variety to give to her friends and family.

My territory has broadened because my garlic crop “failed.” I’ve been praying that Yhwh would broaden my territory to bless the people he brings into my life. He made it possible for my husband Jim to build the cedar raised beds in which we planted the garlic. He preserved the seed from the previous harvest and provided the money to purchase new Inchellium Red SEED (I accidentally made braids from my entire Louisville crop in 2023 and had no seed left.) and Music SEED. (The story of why I needed new Music seed will have to wait for a subsequent blog. Stay tuned.) Yhwh provided the conditions so the crop grew so remarkably well. A friend who checks on our beds was so impressed with the size of the garlic in December—looking like it was ready to harvest then—that he sent me a picture of it.

And here’s what it was like in March 2024. So lovely.

It was Yhwh’s crop and Yhwh’s doings. So the harvest went to Him and those he brought into my territory with whom I was able to share His harvest. Praise Yhwh.