First Garlic, First March

This is our first year with garlic in the ground at Ebey’s Prairie Garlic.

It still feels a little surreal to say that.

In November, porcelain varieties — Music, Susan Delafield, and Zemo — were tucked into soil beneath a thick layer of organic barley straw. Winter on the prairie has been fairly mild this year. Windy. Crisp nights. Bright sun mixed with some rain. Nothing extreme enough to shock the garlic, so it’s been a gentle first season.

Now it’s almost March, and the plants are pushing up through the straw. Three, sometimes four inches tall. Every day they seem a little higher. Seeing that deep green against the golden barley mulch is grounding. There was planning — spacing, fertility, soil prep, timing — and then, at some point, we had to trust what was happening below the surface. Before two weeks had passed on the calendar, robust, pearl-white shoots began popping up. November was mild.

The garlic looks steady and strong.

Soil temperatures are being watched closely now. Organic inputs will be applied once the soil temperature levels off around 50°F to support spring growth. There’s always that balance between wanting to act and knowing the soil sets the schedule.

Beyond this year’s garlic block, the rotation acreage is coming in beautifully. The barley and legume mix is greening up across the prairie — thick, fresh, almost velvety. That cover crop matters just as much as the garlic. It’s building soil, adding nitrogen, and setting the stage for what comes next.

March 1 marks another first.

On January 29, also Steve’s birthday, the first Music bulbs went into a steady low roast to begin the slow Maillard process that transforms fresh garlic into black garlic. Over time, heat and humidity trigger a natural browning reaction between sugars and amino acids, deepening flavor and turning the cloves dark and soft.

Thirty-one days later, one will be opened to see how the transformation unfolded. No big expectations. Maybe warm bread with butter. Maybe folded into a triple cream cheese — something soft and rich that lets the garlic settle in and spread out. Just taste it and learn.

This season feels like that in general — learn, observe, adjust, and learn some more.

There’s something reassuring about garlic in March. It doesn’t hurry. It’s just in tune with the world around it.

What a great way to begin.

— Cait