# Open Farm Day in Connecticut



## larry_stewart

Spent the day ( yesterday) visiting a few farms.
Connecticut has an " Open Farm Day" where a bunch of farms open their doors for the public to come and visit, sample, purchase products, tour the farms , speak to the farmers.

I primarily went to visit The Garlic Farm, and chewed the owners ear off with loads of questions.  Wanted to get a feel for how the Pro's do it.

Perfect weather, a lot of fun.

Had bunches of garlic hanging in the barn.


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## blissful

larry_stewart said:


> Spent the day ( yesterday) visiting a few farms.
> Connecticut has an " Open Farm Day" where a bunch of farms open their doors for the public to come and visit, sample, purchase products, tour the farms , speak to the farmers.
> 
> I primarily went to visit The Garlic Farm, and chewed the owners ear off with loads of questions.  Wanted to get a feel for how the Pro's do it.
> 
> Perfect weather, a lot of fun.
> 
> Had bunches of garlic hanging in the barn.



That looks like FUN! I bet the Garlic Farm was fun too. I just finished trimming the last of my curing garlic today, my Russian Red. Larry, learn any tricks of the trade you want to share with us?

I visited (over the holiday week-end) the unexpected farms at a historical place in Wisconsin. It is called Old World Wisconsin. What they have done, is to take actual farms/homes/general stores/wheel houses/blacksmith shops moved from around Wisconsin to this one location, built originally by the germans, finns, norwegians and others, then show the gardens/farms actual to that ethnic type, during that portion of history, 1830's up to 1910. They also had food preparation in stone/brick ovens, large black stoves for heating and cooking, hands on activities for creating articles of use, animals they used and cared for. There were people (volunteers) working as interpreters, showing, explaining, and narrating the stories of that time in that place. A beautiful, peaceful, walk in nature.
https://oldworldwisconsin.wisconsinhistory.org/about-us/


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## skilletlicker

While living in Northern California went to the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Seemed like every food you could name was made with garlic there. Did they have garlic ice cream?


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## GotGarlic

skilletlicker said:


> While living in Northern California went to the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Seemed like every food you could name was made with garlic there. Did they have garlic ice cream?


My dad used to live very close to Gilroy. We could smell the garlic driving down to Spreckels. I believe they did have garlic ice cream [emoji38]


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## Cheryl J

Wow, that's a lot of garlic! Looks and sounds like fun, Larry.  I love foodie events.


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## larry_stewart

blissful said:


> I visited (over the holiday week-end) the unexpected farms at a historical place in Wisconsin. It is called Old World Wisconsin. What they have done, is to take actual farms/homes/general stores/wheel houses/blacksmith shops moved from around Wisconsin to this one location, built originally by the germans, finns, norwegians and others, then show the gardens/farms actual to that ethnic type, during that portion of history, 1830's up to 1910. They also had food preparation in stone/brick ovens, large black stoves for heating and cooking, hands on activities for creating articles of use, animals they used and cared for. There were people (volunteers) working as interpreters, showing, explaining, and narrating the stories of that time in that place. A beautiful, peaceful, walk in nature.
> https://oldworldwisconsin.wisconsinhistory.org/about-us/



We have similar thing down here too.  They actually have an annual fair ( as they would have mid 1800's)  which is actually coming up the next two weekends.  There are produce , craft and livestock competitions along with old fashioned baseball game and other things from back in the day.  Yours looks a lot bigger than the local one we have here.  I love places like that.

As far as the garlic goes, not too much new info, just kinda reinforced what I already knew and did. He plants them in the fall ( mid october in his area) along with a low nitrogen fertilizer.  Mulches them.  After the winter, when they get about 6 inches high, he uses one application of a high nitrogen fertilizer along with drip irrigation. Don't over water.  Ideally he prefers a raised bed, cause he doesn't like the garlic to sit in any water, to avoid rot, fungus ....  As it gets close to harvest, he has to monitor it very closely, cause a few days can make a big difference in their weight ( more profitable to him) or them going to rot, which would be a disaster.  He said a day or two more of growth could be the difference of $20,000. But its a a risk.

I personally had a pretty good year of garlic.  Actually, my best one yet.  I was smart enough to keep journal of what I did and when I did it.  That along tweaking it a bit from some of the things he said, Im hoping to have as good or even better garlic year next year.   I don't really need to do much better, but just having consistency would be nice.  Unlike my eggplants which do well obeyer, crappy the next .... I just can't figure out why.  ( Same with my Zucchinis)

This is his Garlic Growing Website.
The Garlic Farm | Tips for growing garlic at home


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## larry_stewart

skilletlicker said:


> While living in Northern California went to the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Seemed like every food you could name was made with garlic there. Did they have garlic ice cream?




There is one not too far from me, Upstate New York, but it always falls out on a weekend I can't go ( kinda like the Cranberry festivals).  Ive had them both marked in my calendars for years and something always comes up.


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## Just Cooking

skilletlicker said:


> While living in Northern California went to the *Gilroy Garlic Festival*. Seemed like every food you could name was made with garlic there. Did they have garlic ice cream?




Still lots of fun and the food is fantastic...  

Ross


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## blissful

Larry, thank you for your post about the annual fair and about garlic. We can never know too much! 

One thing I've learned about gardens, is that on a year when tomatoes do poorly (like this year for me), seriously, only harvesting 1/10th of the volume of last year, is a year, another plant will do well. This year it is beans and potatoes, strawberries and my fruit trees shot up like crazy. When I'm canning goods, I take what I can get and then hope for a better year next year for those things that didn't produce well. We're going to be inundated with pears and some apples this fall. It's a challenge to meet the seasons as they are presented. Sometimes we see 3.5 inch garlic, and some years smaller. It falls the way it falls. It sure does feed us well, and that's all I'm looking for.


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## larry_stewart

I hear ya,
Just when you think you figured it all out, something else comes up to prove you wrong.
Obviously I prefer a productive year.  But if its not, at least if i know the reason then I'm ok with it ( too cold, too hot, too much rain, not enough rain, insects, ph, soil
 , rabbits, slugs , cats...).  But what I hate is when something doesn't work, and from what I can see, i appeared to have done everything right ( obviously  i didn't ).  But, there's always next year.  Im always learning something new.  I love visiting farms , gardens ... to get new ideas or confirm some of my old ideas.


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## Sir_Loin_of_Beef

And nary a vampire in sight!


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## buckytom

Did any of the places sell spoons?


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## larry_stewart

buckytom said:


> Did any of the places sell spoons?


Now that you mention it  , We did stroll into an antique market in Newport where they sold several full sets of silverware.  The soup spoons did have potential, but not the exact ones that i like, so i kept walking

As for the farms themselves, all finger food samples ( I prefer using my fingers even over a spoon)


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## blissful

Sir_Loin_of_Beef said:


> And nary a vampire in sight!



I haven't seen a vampire for years now.  One of the benefits of garlic.

Speaking of spoons, there is a company (or two) that makes utensils with engravings on them. They are pretty cool. I bought a silver plated fork for my son's lunch, so he wouldn't have to lose one of a set. It had xoxo printed on it. So he could remember his is loved.

You can pick out whatever engraving you prefer. Here is a cute one.


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