How to Cure Garlic

By Mary Nakirya

Garlic can be dried for long term storage. This will take 3 to 4 weeks of drying.

How to do it:

Place the entire garlic plant (bulb, roots and stalk) in a cool, dry place. You can tie the garlic in bunches and hang it, or spread your harvest out on a rack. Either way, good ventilation is a must.
Allow the garlic to dry for a few weeks (elephant garlic needs at least four weeks to cure). The outer wrapper will papery and shrunken when the garlic is dry.

Garlic drying

Once dry, trim the roots close to the bulb (leave about a half-inch remaining).
Use a soft brush to remove any dirt from the bulb. The outer layer of the wrapper can be removed, if further cleaning is desired – but try not to remove much more than that.

Leave the stalks intact, if you plan to braid your garlic. Trim them to within an inch or two of the bulb if you plan to store your garlic loose.
Your garlic is now ready for storage! Keep it in a cool, dry place and it should stay fresh for months.

Save some of your  bulbs for planting next year
Only undamaged bulbs should be dried for storage. If you nick a bulb while digging it up, you’ll need to use it right away.

How to make home made Garlic Powder

Peel your garlic cloves, and slice them thin.

•  Then, place the garlic slices in a 150 degree oven or in a dehydrator, and heat until dry.
•  The garlic is dry when you can crush it in your hand and it crumbles easily.
•  Allow the garlic to cool. Then, grind with a coffee grinder, spice mill, food processor or mortar and pestle until you reach your desired consistency.
• Store your finished garlic powder in an air-tight container in a cool, dry spot or freeze.

Photo from http://finefettlefarm.wordpress.com/

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Importance of Agro-Forestry

Although the word systems and practices are used synonymously in agro-forestry literature, a distinction can be drawn between them. Agro-forestry is a collective name for land use system and technologies in which woody perennials are deliberately used on the same land management units or agricultural crops and animals in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence.

Home gardens are used loosely to mean several practices, such as growing vegetables behind the house. In agro-forestry terminology, home garden are mixed plantings where multipurpose trees and shrubs are grown in intimate association with annual and perennial crops / livestock’s under the management of family labor within the compound of individual house.

Food production is the primary function of most home gardens and it is almost continuous throughout the year. The intimate mixture of various agricultural crops and multipurpose trees meet the basic needs of the local population while the multistoried configuration and high species diversity of home gardens help reduce the environmental deterioration.
It is estimated that every year millions of acres of land fall out of production due to soil degradation, and the most prevalent of soil degradation are nutrient depletion and soil erosion. Soil degradation is a major problem particularly in our developing countries where effective erosion control measures, and nutrient replenishment is seldom practiced.
In Mayuge for instance, many farmers cultivate on the same piece of land year in and year out without fallowing or applying manure / fertilizer, resulting in consistence decline of biological potential of the soil in form of reduced yields. Trees are known to improve and maintain soil fertility using agro-forestry as a low input system for famers.
For a soil to be fertile its physical, chemical and biological properties need to be conducive for the plant growth by improving on the physical, chemical and biological status of the soils……….trees can enhance crop performance.

Mulopi Joseph