Garlic & Lamb

A Stinking Rose for Steamboat

Garlic is one of the easiest vegetables to grow in our mountain climate. With a small investment and a little work, the gardener is rewarded with a luscious—if smelly—crop of beautiful, tasty bulbs. My general rule of thumb is to plant in late September, harvest in late July. Here are my steps to delicious garlic:

In Advance
1. Plan the garden location and size. The garden should be located where it can receive good sun and will get enough water, but won’t be in standing water. It takes about two pounds of seed garlic to plant a 4’ x 6’ bed, which produces more than my husband and I can eat in a year. Sell some, share with friends, pickle some, eat more.

2. Prepare the garden bed by removing all weeds. Loosen the soil and add soil amendments as soon as possible, so the soil has a chance to absorb them.

3. Check local garden stores for seed garlic or order it from a reputable source. Don’t use grocery-store garlic, which is often treated with sprouting inhibitor.

Planting Day
4. Peel off the outer layer of dry skin from the bulb of garlic. Gently separate the individual cloves. Depending on the variety, you may have 4-12 plantable cloves. I plant the largest cloves, and eat the smaller ones.

5. In the garden, use a narrow trowel or bulb planter to make a hole about 3 inches deep. You can add a sprinkle of bone meal to the bottom of the hole, which helps bulbs with root growth. Place the clove into the hole, root end down, and cover with soil. The root end is the dry, gnarly, rough end. Plant cloves 4 inches apart.

6. When you’ve planted all your cloves, give the garden a little water. Then cover with a good 6 inches of straw and water again. This mulch will help keep the moisture in until snow arrives and will help prevent weeds next spring.

Watch this space next spring for tips on growing and harvesting your garlic!



Mary’s Lamb Cook-Off
It’s all about LOCAL: talented local chefs will prepare mouth-watering dishes using locally-raised lamb and locally-raised produce! It’s the first-ever Mary’s Lamb Cook-Off!

Mark your calendar! This event is part of OktoberWest, September 19, at Bear River Bar & Grill on the ski mountain.

Competing chefs will receive one side of lamb and will prepare dishes for two competitions: Best Little Lamb and People’s Choice. The Best Little Lamb contest will be judged by a panel of five experts.

Please join us at 3:30 pm for the People’s Choice competition. You’ll get to sample an astonishing variety of lamb dishes, plus you get to vote for the winner!