A Change That Was Long Overdue

Photo by Rick Jackofsky

String change that is. Since we haven't had a show for a few weeks, and knowing I will be going through a half dozen sets of strings for the twelve sets of music I'll be playing over the next couple weeks, I decided to milk my last set of for all they were worth. I was almost getting used to the muffled sound of dead strings . . . NOT!  Nothing like a fresh set of strings! Looking forward to getting back on stage with my fresh Martin SP medium light phosphor bronze acoustic guitar strings and my Larrivee 000-50!

September 18th Rocky Point Farmers Market - Rocky Point, NY

September 24th  Long Island Fair - Old Bethpage, NY

September 25th Long Island Apple Festival - Setauket, NY

October 1st & 2nd The Hudson Valley Garlic Festival - Saugerties, NY

Homegrown Garlic 2016

This year's garlic picked, cured, and cleaned. We ended up with between 8 1/2 and 9 pounds. That should get us through the winter, if not we will just have to pick up some more at the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival in Saugerties, NY, October 1st & 2nd where we (The Homegrown String Band™) will be performing 3 sets of high energy acoustic roots music each day.

From "The Market" to Montrose

2013 Rocky Point Harvest Fest - photo by Charlie Bevington

This year's Rocky Point Farmers Market  Fall Festival was a huge success, a big crowd and perfect weather along with great food, drink, and music. A big thanks to everyone who helped make it happen. It is really nice to be part of a hometown event, like "The Market," that helps to bring the community together while supporting local agriculture and arts.

The Homegrown String Band will take to the road for the next two weeks with performances at the Hendick Hudson Library, in Montrose, NY on September 22, 2013 and at the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival in Saugerties, NY on September 28 and 29, 2013. The band will be back on Long Island for the Setauket Fall Festival, which takes place October 5, 2013 on the grounds of the Emma S. Clark Library.

2012 Hudson Valley Garlic Festival - September 29 & 30

If you've never been at the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival get ready for a real treat. Located in the town of Saugerties, NY at the foot of the beautiful Catskill mountains on the Hudson River. Prepare to have a wonderful time! 10 musical acts on 5 stages.

The Homegrown String Band on the West Market Stage

Saturday and Sunday - 3 sets each day!

Click Here For Directions to the HVGF

Ophio Garlic Harvest 2012

2012 Garlic Harvest photo by Rick Jackofsky

Our show at the Ossie Davis Theater last night went very well, and I'd like to thank everyone who came out on a holiday night to see The Homegrown String Band in action. I hope you all had as much fun as we did.

I harvested my garlic today, about a week earlier than I had planned. We had a very warm winter this year and I'm not sure if that helped or hurt the garlic. We harvested our garlic scapes three or four weeks ago. This year, I lost about 10% of my crop to some sort of root rot and the 90 bulbs I dug up today were all small to medium size. People often ask me when they should harvest their hard necked (ophio) garlic. I usually go with the rule of thumb (green thumb, of course!) that you should harvest when half of the leaves have turned yellow. The remaining green leaves represent the layers of protective "paper" that will protect the garlic during curing and winter storage. If you let all the leaves die back there will be no paper wrapping the bulbs. You also run the risk of the heads over ripening and beginning to open up, which creates an opening for moisture and disease that will drastically shorten the storage life of your garlic. We were eating garlic from last year's harvest into March this year. Another thing to remember when harvesting garlic is that you should never harvest from wet ground. I usually stop watering my garlic patch a week or two before I plan on harvesting. Now I will dust off the loose dirt and cull out any damaged heads, which we will use uncured, then I'll let the rest of the garlic cure in a cool, dry, well ventilated area (our kitchen) for about two to four weeks. At that point, I will cut off the tops, trim the roots, take off the outside layer of dirty paper, and store the bulbs in mesh bags in our basement. When we perform at the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival in September I will try to find some garlic with bigger cloves to use as seed garlic for my fall planting. If not I will pick the biggest cloves from my harvest; "plant the best and eat the rest!"

Hudson Valley Garlic Festival

In 1989, Pat Reppert, AKA The Goddess of Garlic, a Hudson Valley herb farmer (Shale Hill Farm and Herb Gardens) organized the first Garlic Festival held in the Hudson Valley—and perhaps on the first on the East Coast. The Hudson Valley Garlic Festival, a celebration in honor of "the stinking rose," has been a Homegrown String Band fall favorite for the last 4 years. Every year we look forward to the food, music, crafts, and good people we will be enjoying on the last weekend of September in Saugerties, NY. This festival is a real class act; everything about it is top notch, and it's no wonder up to 50,000 garlic lovers from around the country attend each year. The weather was not great this year, but the festival was still very well attended. As usual, we came home with 15 or 20 lbs. of various varieties of organically grown garlic, including some seed garlic that I'll be planting in the next few weeks. If you attend the HVGF you will be able to sample an amazing array of garlic and garlic-flavored products like roasted garlic, garlic ice cream, garlic pretzels, chocolate covered garlic, garlic scape guacamole, garlic salsa, and garlic shots (better than flu shots!), as well as 10 bands performing, everything from bluegrass to zydeco, continuously on 5 stages scattered throughout the park. Be there in 2010, we will!

Garlic Photo by Rick Jackofsky