Harvesting and Curing Garlic from My Edible Landscape, Bumper Chicken Garden, What's My Wife Doing?

An update on the crops I'm growing in raised beds to feed our chickens, and while I'm walking through the garden, I notice that it's time to harvest and cure the 160 garlic bulbs that I planted last November.
Welcome to our self reliant homestead! Join us, Shawn and D, as we create a resilient, abundant and sustainable ecosystem that feeds our families from the land in Ontario Canada. Using permaculture as our guide, we strive to become independent in water, food, energy and shelter, focused on beauty in form and efficiency in function.
Our Self Reliance is a life of compromise between my two daughters and my wife's preference for culture, comfort and formality, and I, with my love of chaotic and beautiful but challenging and often uncomfortable wilderness living. The resulting homesteads are an eclectic blend of modern with traditional, whimsical with practical, formal with informal, civilized with rustic.
Over the last five years, my wife and I designed and built our dream homesteads from scratch with very little outside help; from undeveloped, declining forest to a comfortable home and cabin with a prolific edible landscape for people and wildlife equally. For many years, we have strived to lessen our burden on others by taking full responsibility for the health and welfare of our immediate family while building a strong community around us, both online and offline. Now that the infrastructure is in place here, we will be spending more time working cooperatively with community members, including extended family, to collectively become more resilient while living a deeply satisfying and meaningful life. Thank you for being part of that!

#homestead #sustainability #farming #offgrid #selfreliance

[michelletinto]

i have been following your, My Self Reliance videos for years, since you began building on the other property, your strength an tenacity is indeed noteworthy and a blessing to watch, , how you started all, over again building bigger and better and keeping up with the times technologies and the demands of our era, keeping your content relevant and current, i have learned so much from you, at so many different levels. Thank you Shawn James, you and your family has been educating and inspiring me for years. Your homestead is growing and developing nicely, and Callie remains a faithful and strong adventurer, . companion. Congratulations. God bless.

[CyberAtlant]

To have big garlic undeground need cut top arrow on each plant! Left only one plant for detect when carlic will be ready! Top arrow with seeds take a lot of food from roots.

[jayolson]

Been with your other two channels for years. No doubt this one will be just as interesting. I’ve always been told to insure your garlic bulbs mature to their maximum you always want to snip the scapes off so the energy goes back into growing the bulb bigger. Now that you are going to have live stock you’ll be able to make your own bone and blood meal for your garden and orchard.

[brianallen]

To get biger bulb you have to cut top seeds when they just start to grow. because plant focused to make seeds for next generation.

[GinaKayLandis]

So glad YT offered this new channel to me! I have watched your Shawn James and MySelfReliance channels for many years. So exciting to know you and your family are together on your respective homesteads!! And your wife is happily making cheeses! And you have chickens!
I am also excited about your garden! A couple things:
The small clover like plant that is in the garden bed with peas and garlic - we would call that "sweet grass" in Ohio, and snack on it when out playing in the neighborhood. Do your chickens eat it? Are you letting it grow for soil amendment?
- Millet: I always thought of millet as bird seed. Then, started adding it to my chicken soup, where ig imparted a wonderful, nutty taste to the soup! Will you be cooking the millet or supplying your chickens with it?
-Buckwheat: "Kasha" is made with buckwheat groats, and is a nice replacement side dish for someone used to eating rice, or noodles. Will you be cooking the buckwheat? Kasha is made with egg, so if you need to use up eggs from high producing chickens, that's good!
Burdock: while you haven't mentioned burdock, I wonder if you are growing any as yet another starchy food supply?

Thank you for sharing parts of your life with us. Can't wait for more videos! Have a wonderful week!

[charleylee]

I call my bil the garlic guru, because he grows it every year for years. He cuts the shapes off and eats them! He and my sister live 15 mins from the Canadian border, he uses purple garlic for his crop and I have grown where I live in western Kentucky, as they send me a box of garlic every year! Home grown garlic is the best. Good luck with next year's crop.

[pauldixon]

Italian porcelain is a good strain for Northern climates

[brendad]

Mid August, you should have a good corn crop.

[mr.potatohead]

Russian red seems one of most consistent varieties, we also advocate cutting scapes about a month before harvest.

[kingrafa]

Now reaching a 1K+ subs with only 2 video so far and a short video. Congrats Shawn and family!

[pansyvaughan]

I found with leaving the scape it slows the bulbs to grow and concentrate on scapes
Love your growing chicken feed nice

[vanessagodiin]

Outstanding garden Shawn. Garlic scapes are great to eat if dipped in a beer batter and deep fried. I use a stout beer for making the batter. I am very interested in your wife's garlic powder recipe and procedure. Thank you for sharing.

[seanday]

It is amazing how much you have changed and improved the land since you moved to this property.

[AZJH]

Sean, like many other comments, I've been with you since leaving your corporate life behind. Of course l subscribed immediately. I know My Self Reliance, but what's the other channel name? Great to know Mrs. James might be on this channel. Would love to see the girls again, too. Callie AS ALWAYS. God speed 🙏🏻 & many prayers 🙏🏻 Nurse Judi in Scottsdale AZ and Eucharistic Minister 🙏🏻

[deanl]

I really appreciate the details you provided for food processing and preservation. As well as the multi crop / perma culture gardening methods you use. I'll be on 17 acres of Alberta prairie in September and hope to have a decent garden and some chickens this time next year. Thank you so much for the

[tonyhirst]

In northern England, I've always had better successes with garlic by growing in a poly tunnel, plant in October and you get better bulbs and an earlier harvest.

[elisabethbenders-hyde]

Interesting that you let most of the garlic scapes grow. The usual advice is to cut them early as they take a lot of energy away from the bulbs, giving you larger bulbs.

[austrolapuis]

Really hope we get to see more of Mrs. James and her contributions on this channel!

[shirleybewley]

A friend took the garlic scapes and dries them then ground then fine, SO good, delicate and garlicy

[abrenning]

I missed the point that this channel was created but I like it. It continues showing creativity and a fuller scope of the work involved for a successful homestead. Good job.