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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Planting Garlic as a Pest Control In your Garden

Garlic is one of the strongest pest control methods in gardens. While using it, plant it around areas where pests are a problem Most insects are repelled by the smell.

However, even the beneficial insects may be repelled by the garlic. This means that care must be taken while planting it so as not to loose the beneficial insects.

To control moles, Use one whole or crushed garlic and place directly into their tunnels. The odor of garlic is very strong to their sensitive nose, and this will encourage them abandon the area. Garlic plants also work as a great deterrent So planting garlic as a companion plant is helpful to eliminate a mole or rats.

Using garlic water for plants can also work as a tonic that seeps into the soil and disrupts the harmful insects that usuallyhide  there. moles  will avoid digging in the dirt that has been treated with garlic water.

Post Harvet Handling

A farmer, Mukose Mudodi from Mayuge district planted 2 acres of maize. When ripe for harvest, he took his whole family of five to get the crop from the garden. That evening, and for the next three days, his wife sold the cobs either fresh or boiled at the market every evening. However, by the fourth day, the cobs were going bad already. He then decided to sun dry and mill them to get flour. Imagine the quality of flour that resulted? Also, imagine the degree of palatability to humans?

This is a common trend among farmers in Uganda. They are oblivious of the fact that as soon as a crop is removed from the ground, or separated from its parent plant, it begins to deteriorate; thereby calling for immediate post harvest handling.

In agriculture, postharvest handling is that stage of crop production immediately following harvest. It includes cooling, cleaning, sorting, processing and packing. Post-harvest treatment largely determines final quality, whether a crop is sold for fresh consumption, used as an ingredient in a processed food product or sold in a processed form. Post-harvest handling is one of the major determinants of the final quality. This is what farmers’ do not do often resulting in rot of their crops and/or price wars leading to lower prices as compared to cost of production.

Many farmers often do not take to this stage of farming because either they do not know how to or financial challenges crop in. Some of them are not even aware of the value added and especially in relation to cost. All Mukose Mudodi had to do was to sell his cobs fresh for the first day. After that, probably sun-dry them and obtain flour for sell. That way, he would be more in control of how much he sells his milled maize. In a milled form, he can store it till the bumper sells have decreased and the prices have gone higher.

Another issue of concern here is: does he have the money to mill it? Or the mill to do it himself? Does he have packaging materials? Poor post handling procedures for the maize crop for instance can lead to development of aflatoxins. These when consumed by humans can lead to stomach upsets and even death especially when taken in huge amounts.

To process or not to is a decision a farmer has to make even before planting the crop. That way, he/she will be more prepared and hence less losses

Prevent New Castle with Sisal Roots

New castle disease is an acute contagious disease of chicken, characterized by respiration distress, nervous sings and death. The disease is highly fatal causing heavy mortalities and loss of egg production and it is caused by a new castle diseases virus. There are many strains of the virus which vary in virulence and clinical manifestation.

Transmission between sick and heath birds is by contact, but infection can also be spread through water and feeds. In areas where free range system is common, especially in rural areas the spread of the disease is fast giving rise to epidemic waves. Before death the birds show depression, coughing, difficulty in breathing and nervous signs. The nervous signs are manifested by twisted neck and paralysis. In laying birds there is severe drop in egg production.
A small type of colored sisal roots mainly found in the forestry can prevent the birds from the attack if crashed and mixed together with water.

•Get the roots of small sisal roots (roots from 4 plants add in 2 litter of water)
•Crash the roots after washing it properly.
•Mix with clean water.
•Add in some grains of millet to attract the birds.
•Place the mixture to the place where the birds feed daily.
•Change the water every day and the crashed roots every after two weeks.

By Mulopi J
Celac Mayuge

GOOD STORAGE FOR BETTER MARKET

During the harvesting period farmers sell their crops at a cheaper price or sometimes no market for the products at all. After a short time the prices raises when farmers have no any product to sell. Storing crop can be a way of to get higher prices for crops. Before a product can be sold, it often has to be stored in good storage.

The quality of perishable products declines if they are stored poorly; moulds, pests, water, heated can damage a stored product so much that it can no longer be sold. Many agricultural products are in ample supply during the harvest season and the prices of these products Is therefore usually low. The rest of the year the prices are usually higher because the supply is lower.

Products stored without damaging their quality can be sold for higher price after the harvest season. There is no guarantee that this will happen if price stay at the same level, producer will lose the money spent to store the products, therefore before making a decision to store a product you have to fully understand what the chances are that the prices of the products will increase.

Storing products is important because it allows the producer to sell their products later, when the price are higher. Unfortunately there is no guarantee that the price will indeed increase. It is important in any case to make sure that the quality of the product does not decrease during storage for better market.

By Mulopi Joseph
Celac Mayuge

What Farmers Should Know About Soil and How to Avoid Erosion:

A natural forest that has never been disturbed by cutting down of trees, ploughing of land, burning or killing of animals and insects is said to be in balance. However, this natural balance does not apply to most land under cultivation, because many agricultural practices disturb the balance in nature.

Too often this result in loss of soil through erosion and cause the reduction of soil fertility. With good farming practices much can be done to restore the soil fertility.

Soil conservation includes all the agricultural practices that are employed in order to maintain or improve the soil. It is also necessary as farmers to learn about some soil and crop supervision practices that lead to soil infertility in order to avoid them from the extension workers through our groups.

Top soil is the first layer of the soil and dark in color because it contains humus and humus consists of materials from dead animal’s and plants that are partly decayed. The more humus in the top soil the more fertile the soil is. This is because humus gives the soil a good structure for air and water to penetrate. Top soil contains many nutrients that plants need and is often 20 – 30 cm deep.

Soil erosion is when the soil is moved away by either wind or water and every year tons of good top soil is washed away from the fields

It is by wind or rain. Washing away of top soil usually happens where the soil is bare and is worse on slopes and hill sides taking away all the humus necessary for our crops.

Avoid soil erosion by making contours and ridges in our gardens this will reduce chances of our top soil to wash away by the rain or wind. Plant trees around gardens to prevent wind which may cause soil erosionduring dry spells.

Sent by

Mulopi J.

CELAC   Mayuge District farmers net work.