who doesn’t just love garlic?!

seed garlic

here at the bossy, we love it … can’t seem to get enough of it!

not only does it keep the vampires away, garlic also has some great medicinal uses from acting as a very powerful anti-fungal to boosting our immune system, lowering cholesterol, healing thrush and strep throat, and in fighting off those blasted colds and ear infections.

it’s even been known to help animals (and humans) expel parasites and rid their body of intestinal worms.  imagine that!

so garlic is pretty genius when ya think about it ….. why not get out there and become one with it?

armenian seed garlic

that’s exactly what we did in mid-october.

remember all that seed garlic we bought thru various local, garlic farmers at the minnesota garlic festival?

it was time to get down n’ dirty!

we sat down one friday night, netflix keyed up with our shows, enamel bowls at the ready, and about 1,000 cloves of garlic awaiting their shucking.

garlic planting was around the corner … the next morning, in fact.

the beds and soil were ready and the unusually warm october weather was starting to fizzle away.

so there we sat….shuckin’ away the papery thin coatings of each garlic bulb…..loving the vibrant, pungent smells….and taking in the pretty markings throughout such varieties like the purple stripes.

shuckin' time!

if i wasn’t a big enough of a farm nerd already ….. learning about all of the varieties and wonders of garlic certainly put me over the edge!

from armenian, music, and german extra hardy to inchellium red, metechi, and siberian.  all in all, we shucked our 8 primary varieties along with a handful of cloves from 24 others that we’re testing to fulfill our curiosity caps.

garlic galore!

once all of the shuckin’ was done….it was time to get all hippie with our own all-natural seaweed emulsion!

that’s right …..seaweed.

here’s the deal….garlic is prone to fungal issues when first planted and a great, chemical-free way to off set that and get them growin’ in the right direction is to soak them in a seaweed/baking soda mixture a few hours to even throughout the night prior to planting these precious little cloves.

dried seaweed

so, we grabbed a big bag of dried seaweed from our local asian market, united noodles, and began the process of extracting all the good stuff from it by bringing it to a boil and then letting the seaweed mixture simmer for three hours.

up next for this slimy wonder …..

seaweed emulsion

after simmering for a while and letting it all work its magic, we put in a few tablespoons of baking soda and gave it a stir.

we, then, drained off the green goodness into glass containers – reusing our old milk jugs.

so easy a caveman …..

um yea….

anyway….a little seaweed goes a long way.

and for under $20, we were able to make our own chemical-free anti-fungal, anti-disease solution to ensure that our garlic is sent off into their soil bed well-prepared.

final product

….and to leave nothing to waste …..

we made sure to take advantage of all the great nutrients and properties that the actual seaweed provides, as well.  a quick grind in the food processor and we’re good to go….perfect for spreading those remnants right into the compost or directly into the soil beds.

pureed seaweed

up next …….time to give those garlic cloves a cozy little bath!

keeping all of the varieties separate, we simply poured the seaweed emulsion over each group and left them to marinate prior to their saturday morning planting.

seaweed bath

some say we spoil our garlic …..

bossy says … go big….or go home.

*for information on where we purchased our seed garlic, please visit here.