Legacy Extension garlic job keeps escalating in Maine gardens – UMaine News

For just about a quarter-century, Dave Fuller has been training untold quantities of folks ages 5 to 90 how to grow hardneck garlic. It is been 1 of his areas of experience as a University of Maine Cooperative Extension agriculture and nontimber forest merchandise professional dependent in Farmington.

He has supplied palms-on schooling for commercial growers and property gardeners in the cultivation, harvest, curing and storage of the pungent perennial in Maine. With Extension crops specialist Steven Johnson, Fuller has created UMaine Extension publications and films that have developed garlic fans throughout the world. Together with Johnson, Fuller also has had several garlic analysis jobs, which include the most current, a three-12 months review of the outcomes of scape removal at distinctive advancement stages on the measurement of the harvested bulb. 

This fall, as he organized for his retirement from UMaine Extension in February, Maine’s garlic expert knew he essential to uncover a residence for the 800 bulbs he’s made use of in his investigation. He contacted colleagues and Grasp Gardener Volunteers who worked with organizers of school and group gardens, which includes tribal gardens, the place some of the 100 kilos of garlic could be planted and applied for educational uses, aid with food stuff sovereignty initiatives and feed the hungry.

In 54 spots in pretty much every single Maine county, Fuller’s garlic now has a 2nd lifetime.

“It’s a cool way to increase the training,” claims Fuller, noting that hardneck garlic was a comparatively new crop in Maine when he commenced developing it 28 yrs back. Indeed, as section of his job interview for his UMaine Extension career 24 years in the past, he did an instructional system on garlic.

“I started and finished my job with garlic,” he states. “It’s a lovely plant, quick to increase and utilized in all the world’s cuisines.”

Fuller’s favored facet has to do with the allium’s perennial visual appearance in the garden — the final to be planted in the slide and the first to look in the spring. His favored recipe: roasted garlic smeared on a fresh baguette.

There’s no telling how significantly garlic is expanding in Maine because of to Fuller’s knowledge and enthusiasm. He hardly ever tires of answering the most-requested dilemma: when do I harvest it?

“It’s a calling,” says Fuller, a UMaine and College of Southern Maine alumnus. “Serving the individuals of Maine when working with my expertise and knowledge has been a aspiration task.”

“Of all the vegetable teams, men and women are superior on tomatoes, but garlic is a complete other factor. Persons are gaga on garlic.”

Roasted Garlic
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Slash the quite major off bulbs of hardneck garlic to expose clove guidelines
Location the bulbs on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil.
Coat the tops of the bulbs with olive oil and bake until gentle, about 50 percent an hour.

Call: Margaret Nagle, [email protected]