My tiny u.p. farm

I LOVE garlic.  I had never grown it before, and last year I decided to give it a try.  In the early fall, I bought some organic garlic heads at the grocery store, pulled the bulbs out and put them into the garden.  This spring I saw them growing, and they’ve grown really well. I read that you dig the garlic heads up when the leaves start yellowing. I noticed the last few days that they were yellowing, so I pulled them up today.

They were a decent size, I believe most of them were the same size as the heads I grew them from.  I cleaned off the dirt with a paper towel:

I read that you should leave them to cure for a few weeks with the roots and stems still attached.  I put them all together in a bunch and they are sitting outside in a shady spot on my porch, where they’ll get good airflow but not get any sun at all. I have them hung up; I wasn’t sure if my friendly neighborhood squirrels and chipmunks would try to eat them. I’ll have to keep an eye out and make sure nobody tries to steal them.  Once the leaves dry out completely you can cut the leaves and roots off. Then you can store them for later use, and save more of the bulbs to grow new garlic for next year.  That’s my plan, at least right now.  We’ll have to wait a few weeks to see how they taste.  If they are good, I’ll grow them again.  The original heads I bought had a good flavor, so hopefully these will too.

One of my young roosters is very goofy – he’s kind of aggressive. More in-your-face every time we’re in the coop.  He has been very friendly since he was small, but now he’s always underfoot.  It’s like he always needs to follow me to see what I’m up to – as if he’s worried I’ll do something to hurt the hens or him.  He likes to peck my pant legs. He bit me the other day, but  that was because I was trying to pick him up, because he wouldn’t go in the coop at night. He seemed to be helping me round up everyone else to get them in, but then he wanted to stay outside.  I went to grab him and he bit my hand.  I got mad and just picked him up and put him inside.   I’m not sure what we’ll do with him yet.  I need to let him mature a bit and see how this personality of his develops.  If he gets more aggressive, he’ll have to go.

For a while I was hoping he was just a very assertive hen, but he’s massive, and the other day he started mounting some of the hens, so it’s now confirmed.  I believe he’s a Buckeye, and they are a rare breed from Ohio.  We’ll see.  I just have so many roosters! I have confirmed that three of my six “teenage” chickens are roosters. There are two more that I’m pretty sure are but they haven’t mounted anyone yet – they are just starting to get long tail feathers now though, so I’m 99% sure.  I have one hen out of that batch, my little Speckled Sussex. Then in the smaller chicks I have at least one, possibly 3 or 4 roosters (out of 8 chicks).  We are planning on keeping 2 or three roosters through the winter, and we’ll have to decide what to do with the rest.  We haven’t picked the keepers yet; I want to see them in all their pretty rooster glory first, once all their feathers have come.