for the love of garlic

My parents plant, harvest and sell organic garlic. So do two of my brothers. Always lots of garlic talk around the table when we're all together. A couple of weeks ago, it was harvest time. I happened to be at my parents farm and saw my dad in the patch, busily digging and pulling. I snapped a few photos. Then felt supremely guilty seeing him work away by himself. Before you knew it, I was in the patch helping him along with a bunch of others...including my mom, my sister Vanessa, my brother Chad and little Mr. Max. The pictures don't show it, but it was one whale of a blaaaaaazingly hot and humid day. This would be the photo that made me feel guilty and got me into the patch... ;-)

Hi ho, hi ho...it's off to work I go...(complete with hot pink gloves on hands!)

The ground was dry so we were able to pretty much go along and pull out each garlic bulb (rather then dig each one). There was the odd one that broke off that we had to dig up. Next they were collected on piles in the field. Along came the lawnmower and little wagon (driven by Miss Vanessa herself) and the piles were picked up and taken to the big wagon where they were laid out for drying. 

My, it's nice to look at when it's all done. And yummy to use in recipes! :-)

The garlic patch is very close to some raspberry bushes. These two got sidetracked occassionally...

And a few more pics taken earlier that day before the fun of garlic harvesting, Max was helping grandpa with some "tractor work" like taking out garbage and recycling...