I meant to show you these delightful photos I took, then forgot all about it. The ducks visited us last week, I was inside when Hanno yelled out "Ducks!!", I went out and was surprised to find an entire family on their walkabout. Of course Hanno fed them, they had a rest and off they went into the bush on the other side of our little dead end street. It's always a treat seeing all the visiting birds we get here but this was something really special.
Gracie was inside the house howling to get out so she could scare the living daylights out of the visitors. When she did get out, when the ducks left, she was on their trail, sniffing the ground as if her life depended on it.
And this is what we did after morning tea today. We broke up the garlic heads, selected the largest cloves and added them back to the jar for planting. Hanno is preparing the soil now and even though we've had a bit of rain, the soil is still as dry as a bone when you dig into it. It will probably be the weekend before the soil is ready and these are planted.
All the small cloves went back into a dish I keep on the kitchen bench, ready for cooking. I'm not sure how much organic garlic costs at the shops now but nothing beats the economy of buying good seed stock, growing your own and saving some of the crop to replant the following year. Those seeds you buy become family assets and can be given away or swapped with family and neighbours. The old farmers were a wise bunch and have taught us well.
What are you doing this week? Are you, like us, preparing beds for planting?
