Central Michigan Seed Swap 2023, February 25th from 11am-4pm

[Zeedman]

Well, @Zeedman looks tall, and if his wife is holding the yellow paper/folder, she is beautiful and has a most lovely smile!

Yes she was, inside & out. She took such joy in life, it was hard for me to not smile when she was with me. It will be tough going without her, I miss her dearly.

If I'm able to make it, I will be placing more emphasis on meeting people this time, rather than being tied to a table.

 

[flowerbug]

@Zeedman garlic has been popular both times i've done this. it is out of season but people will still take it to plant. if the ground is thawed out enough they can stick it right in the ground or put it in a small pot until it gets warm enough to transplant it outside.

i just remembered this because i have my container of garlic all sorted through and ready to go, even if it is sprouting a little.

 

[Jack Holloway]

Yes she was, inside & out. She took such joy in life, it was hard for me to not smile when she was with me. It will be tough going without her, I miss her dearly.

If I'm able to make it, I will be placing more emphasis on meeting people this time, rather than being tied to a table.

My deepest condolences on your loss.

 

[Zeedman]

@Zeedman garlic has been popular both times i've done this. it is out of season but people will still take it to plant. if the ground is thawed out enough they can stick it right in the ground or put it in a small pot until it gets warm enough to transplant it outside.

i just remembered this because i have my container of garlic all sorted through and ready to go, even if it is sprouting a little.

Funny you should mention garlic...

After breaking open all of the garlic for planting, I usually plant the largest cloves, then peel & dehydrate all the cloves that are left. This year though, my schedule is in flux; so after peeling one variety, I put the other ice cream pails of cloves downstairs on the basement floor - and forgot about them. Well, I just checked on them a few says ago, and they still look fresh! Normally the cloves begin to sprout and/or dry out shortly after the bulbs are broken open. So far this year, 6 months after harvest, only one variety (Georgian Fire) shows any sign of sprouting. So if I'm able to make it to the swap, I'll be able to bring some good cloves for anyone that wants to try Spring planting.

Garlic was also surprisingly popular in a local seed swap I attended last Fall (I ended up doing an impromptu seminar on growing garlic). With only about 20-30 people attending, I gave away 40-50 cloves. There will undoubtedly be more interest there, fortunately I still have quite a few cloves left that I could spare.

It appears I've finally found a good way to store fresh garlic over the winter. Those ice cream pails of cloves surround a 5-gallon bucket of apples that are also over-wintering really well. Not sure whether there is a synergistic effect going on between the two, but I'll make a point of repeating this arrangement in the future.

 

[flowerbug]

Funny you should mention garlic...

After breaking open all of the garlic for planting, I usually plant the largest cloves, then peel & dehydrate all the cloves that are left. This year though, my schedule is in flux; so after peeling one variety, I put the other ice cream pails of cloves downstairs on the basement floor - and forgot about them. Well, I just checked on them a few says ago, and they still look fresh! Normally the cloves begin to sprout and/or dry out shortly after the bulbs are broken open. So far this year, 6 months after harvest, only one variety (Georgian Fire) shows any sign of sprouting. So if I'm able to make it to the swap, I'll be able to bring some good cloves for anyone that wants to try Spring planting.

Garlic was also surprisingly popular in a local seed swap I attended last Fall (I ended up doing an impromptu seminar on growing garlic). With only about 20-30 people attending, I gave away 40-50 cloves. There will undoubtedly be more interest there, fortunately I still have quite a few cloves left that I could spare.

It appears I've finally found a good way to store fresh garlic over the winter. Those ice cream pails of cloves surround a 5-gallon bucket of apples that are also over-wintering really well. Not sure whether there is a synergistic effect going on between the two, but I'll make a point of repeating this arrangement in the future.

as long as it keeps dry that is the most critical thing i've found out. the very same garlic, peeled and put in a sealed jar and in the fridge (where it is mostly dark) has sprouted vigorous roots by now. in comparison i have some scapes and cloves that have not sprouted at all (including some micro scapes that are about 1-2mm across and they look as nice as they did when they were picked and initially dried down).

some of the scapes have some green poking out of the end but without the roots able to find any moisture they're not growing much at all. i think they'll stay this way for another few weeks.
dark and cool seems to be good storage for them. dark and moist, they think they're in the ground...

i have some garlic in storage and all i do for that is wrap it in a towel. next time we cook something with a lot of garlic i'll have to break it open and see how it is doing.

but back to the seed swap. for both of them i've attended and had garlic samples to give away i was able to give away all of it. the first seed swap i took some small jars of the frozen ground up garlic that i'd prepped and Mom wanted the freezer space back so i took them and gave them away to anyone who showed some enthusiasm for garlic. the 2nd seed swap one of those people came back and said hello to me again so that was fun.

 

[Branching Out]

Normally the cloves begin to sprout and/or dry out shortly after the bulbs are broken open.

I had the same thing happen with my garlic cloves leftover from planting in November, only mine were sitting beside our kitchen table where it is warm all the time. Whenever I needed garlic I would grab a few, and I only used the last ones about a week ago. They were all fine. I don't get it. The best of the bunch was one lone clove of a marbled purple stripe called Metechi. They say it 'stores like a rock' and I would have to agree. The clove wrappers are so strong you have to be careful peeling them, or you end up with something similar to a paper cut. I have a note to save bulbils from that one this year. It apparently has an extraordinarily beautiful umbel as well.

And if you had not mentioned it I never would have thought to bring garlic to a seed swap. Good to know!

 

[flowerbug]

And if you had not mentioned it I never would have thought to bring garlic to a seed swap. Good to know!

always good to have if vampires start breathing down your neck...

 

[Zeedman]

always good to have if vampires start breathing down your neck...

Or those accursed seed suckers...

The cold drove a lot of box elder bugs in from the walls, mostly into my basement. Fortunately, they show little interest in feeding on the garlic.

 

[flowerbug]

we have plenty of those bugs around here too. they like to hang out on the sides of the house when it gets warm enough. before i caulked around the heat vents inside the house we'd have hundreds of them on the windows and wandering around inside. now it is many fewer but a few gaps still remain someplace that i've not found and sealed up so they still can get in. we also used to have a lot more of the asian lady bugs on the windows and wandering around. i could suck the bugs off the windows with a small vacuum and come back a half hour later to do it all over again - for days on end... caulking those vents helped with those too. i'm hoping that all the caulking i did last year will help out more.

 

[Zeedman]

Well, before booking a room, I looked at the long-term forecast. Sadly, it doesn't look stable enough for me to count on driving there. Too bad, I had really looked forward to seeing many of you again... and spending more time in conversation than as a "table guard". Still not a done deal, but even if the forecast changes favorably, it is unlikely I could find lodging at short notice.