It's Green Garlic Time!

We've been pulling up lots of green garlic on the farm. Why? Even though we space our cloves carefully when we plant, there are still some that grow up in doubles and even triples for various reasons. We thin them to give the strongest plant the space to grow and become a nice big bulb of garlic.

What is green garlic? Basically, green garlic is garlic that isn't all the way developed. It looks a lot like a scallion at this stage. But, green garlic has a wonderful mild garlic flavor. Seems like you can put it in just about anything. We've cooked it up in stir fries, quiche, egg rolls, and even put it raw into coleslaw, salsa, and salad. All delicious. We've also made the classic potato leek soup with a garlic twist. It's easy:

Green Garlic, Leek, and Potato Soup

• Slice one bunch of green garlic & bunch of leeks
• In a large pot melt approximately 4 tablespoons of butter (enough to coat) 
• Add green garlic and leeks. Saute on a medium-low heat until wilted but not browned, around 10-20 minutes
• Peel and thinly slice 4-6 medium potatoes and add to pot
• Cover with chicken or vegetable broth and cook until potatoes are soft
• Lightly mash with a potato masher or puree in blender if desired
• Add salt and pepper to taste

That's it! Like it more garlicky? Add more green garlic. Want it to go further? Add more potatoes or broth. Vary the amounts according to what you like. It's soup, there's lots of room to play around. You could even saute the green garlic and leeks then put everything in the crock pot and let it simmer. What a great meal to come home to at the end of the day!

What's your favorite green garlic recipe? We have a lot more to eat. If you're in the area and want to pick up a bunch or so, just let us know!

Origins

Origin-

Noun

 The beginning of something's existence.

  How did we get where we are? Well that's a long story. One that seems normal and blah to us but to many, it seems extraordinary. A line from my favorite poem as a child seems to sum it all up.

  

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.                               -Robert Frost --1920

  

  Northern California, Thanksgiving day, 1992, an accident on a football field sets into motion a romance that had flickered but never burned. In less than two years we would be married in one of the most beautiful places imaginable. 

 We were young but had good jobs. We had a desire to own some land but not a postage stamp lot and a cookie cutter house.We wanted SOME LAND. But we lived in California, where land doesn't come cheap and our jobs weren't that good. Big Sur would of been first on the list but it's well...Big Sur and either for the uber rich or the free-loading friends of the uber rich. So Big Sur it was not.

  An offer to house-sit for a few months in the mountains of Washington State proved to be too enticing to pass up. Soon we quit our jobs, packed up our meager possessions, sold the classic VW, bought a 1965 4-wheel drive Chevy truck and we were off. We really didn't know what we were doing.

  Now, while most of our friends were just getting into the rhythm of early adulthood. Juggling the newly earned right to consume alcohol with the proposition of having to get up in the morning to go to work. We were discovering a new world.

 Country life.

 We weren't Californians anymore (although Californian doesn't just wash off in the shower or get buried in the grime under your fingernails). We had a lot to learn and the tuition at the school of hard knocks gets expensive from time to time. Snow, rednecks, small town cops, firewood, winter driving and livestock all come to mind when I think back on that time.

  Six months later we were looking for our own piece of property. And we found it. 40 acres, its own little valley, remote, no power, no phone lines, dirt roads. Just what we (thought we) wanted. So we did what any reasonable newlywed couple would do, we started building a log cabin in the garage of the house we were taking care of.

  To be continued... go here to read part 2.

Like we needed something else to do, we built a blog! I'll let Heather take the wheel now, I am off to plant barley.