Every year I grow masses of garlic. It’s one of the easiest and most satisfying crops to grow, and my entire family adores it. My son has just lifted the autumn-planted crop. This is mostly my favourite variety, ‘Albigensian’, with four or five others thrown in for good measure. I’m thrilled with the results. The bulbs are massive, swollen during the early hot weather we had this year.

This must be the first year that I’ve harvested a crop of garlic with no traces of rust: not a pustule in sight. Rust fungus thrives on moist foliage, so the absence of rust this year can be put down to the dry weather we’ve been having.

The bulbs are bigger and better than ever, and they cropped so early that we didn’t have to buy any to keep us going. Last year’s crop saw us right through until we were able to harvest the first of this year’s bulbs.

At present the crop is suspended through the slats of a very decrepit pub-style table in the garden, drying off nicely. The longest lasting bulbs from last year seemed to be those which I plaited, so I’ll be spending a while plaiting some more garlic ropes.

Soon it’ll be time to harvest the spring-planted variety ‘Solent Wight’, but with its leaves still green (and rust free), I’ll wait until the last possible moment for that. In the meantime I look forward to some seriously tasty meals!