Actually, it’s a leek. Allium ampeloprasum var. ampeloprasum, or Elephant Garlic, to be exact. This is a single “clove,” and it’s comically huge. I picked up a pound of it, which amounts to about six or so cloves, at Peaceful Valley yesterday, along with some cover crop and other seeds – hyssop and epazote and goji – some of which I started today.

Epazote is an essential herb for flavoring beans, and I’m out of it.  That is, I planted it years ago, and for years it reseeded, but this year for whatever reason it didn’t, and so I want to get some going again.  I’m planting Hyssop as bee and butterfly forage, and hope to use it at the border of the food forest.  The goji seeds are an experiment.  I have three goji plants in the garden already, one that I ordered as a plant a number of years ago, and another two that started out as cuttings from the original.  The plants, though they die to the ground and return every year, have never seemed especially happy in full sun, or part or full shade.  Goji is easy to propagate, but I decided to try a fresh start, in the hope that I have better success with seedlings, and eventually better source plants for future cuttings.  We’ll see.