Garlic grows in abundance at Goat Hill Garden

By Libby James
North Forty News

You don't have to be a lover of garlic, or even much interested in cooking with the little veggie dubbed "the stinking rose," to get totally hooked on growing it.

"There's something about garlic that grabs me," said Mary Brodahl of Goat Hill Garden in Bellvue.

Brodahl is busy mid-October every year when she pulls a dozen large brown paper bags from the storage area in her house and lovingly separates more than 2,500 cloves of garlic from their bulbs. They get planted at a depth twice their height in soil that Brodahl hand tills and amends with alfalfa pellets.

The cloves settle in, covered with a thick blanket of mulch that protects them from frost heaves and helps to retain moisture. They won't get much attention, or need it, until March when they poke through the soil and begin to grow in earnest. Brodahl welcomes them and watches carefully, some years watering them as early as April.

Using irrigation water from an old ditch that flows through their property, Brodahl keeps her plants moist by flooding the "basin" she has created to retain water. She plants cloves 4 to 6 inches apart in diamond patterns to take advantage of the water supply. She rotates her crop on a three-year cycle, giving the soil a chance to rest.

By mid-July, when 30 percent of the leaves have begun to turn brown, it's harvest time. Once they are removed from the ground, the tiny cloves that have grown into hefty bulbs get hung in bundles by their stems in a cool place for three weeks.

"It's important to keep the bulbs out of the sun once they are out of the ground," Brodahl said. "It's also best to leave the dirt that clings to them alone until they are dry when it is easy to remove."

By the middle of August, Brodahl and her husband, Craig, swing into their marketing mode. For a month, they spend their Saturdays at farmers' markets in downtown Fort Collins and on Drake Road. Wednesdays, they set up their stall at the LaPorte Farmers' Market at The Old Feed Store where they often see friends and neighbors.

"It's a social time for us," Brodahl said.

Bulbs sell anywhere from 50 cents to $1.50, depending on size and variety. Brodahl specializes in hardneck garlics, the kind with a firm stem, because there are many more varieties with a wide range in the flavor, nature and size of cloves. Her favorites are Chesnok Red, Polish Jenn, Inchelium Red, Purple Strip and Porcelain hardneck garlics and Artichoke softneck. Softneck garlics can be braided to become an attractive and edible kitchen decoration.

Some farmers' market customers buy only a bulb or two, but others stock up with enough to last them through the winter. Garlic stores well if kept dry and at a temperature above 64 degrees to inhibit sprouting.

By mid-September, all the "garlic for sale" is gone and the marketing season is over. By this time, Brodahl has sorted out her best and biggest bulbs to plant for the following year and placed them in bags according to variety, awaiting October's cool weather to start the cycle again. Cloves should be planted four to six weeks before the ground freezes.

According to Brodahl, garlic is easy to grow in northern Colorado. She says the best results come from selecting the biggest cloves from big, healthy bulbs, preferably from garlic that has been grown locally. While she sometimes buys cloves for planting from as far away as Washington state, she selects bulbs and cloves over time to produce cloves that grow best in her garden.

A soil scientist by training, Brodahl grew up in Kansas, studied fine arts and wildlife biology at Washington State University in Pullman, and later earned a graduate degree in range plant ecology. She is employed as a soil scientist by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Fort Collins.

"I'm most interested in maintaining good soil," she said.

In addition to garlic, her garden overflows with tomatoes, squash and other vegetables. "Garlic thrives in a soil that contains some sand, not much clay and is, well, 'mellow' soil," she said.

Brodahl recommends those interested in garlic - cooking with it, using it for medicinal purposes or growing it - can find a wealth of information on the Internet.

The Garlic Valley Farms web site touts the use of garlic juice to obtain the best garlic flavor, and suggests a couple of simple recipes.

Garlic Bread
from an old Sicilian recipe

Mix equal parts of butter or olive oil and garlic juice. Lightly toast bread slices. Spread with garlic mixture and toast again