Orderly hope

Today we got the garlic planted! I won’t even say “finally,” because even though I think this is the latest we’ve ever planted it, our long mild autumn means that it still feels about right. Yes, it has snowed a couple times, but the soil still has just the right amount of cold softness to hold the garlic, waiting for spring. 

It’s that sense of holding that makes garlic one of our favorite veggies to plant. It is holding out hope that next year the spring will come and warmth will bring up the green garlic scapes. Hope that we, or someone we love, will be willing to harvest the plump bulbs in July and be eager to cook something rich and savory (like the short ribs with garlic and tomatoes currently simmering in the oven) when the bulbs are dried and ready in the fall. 

It is an orderly hope, with straight rows of evenly spaced cloves leading to (relatively) straight braids of bulbs next fall. And it is the tastiest hope in our cold fall garden.