We finished our fall planting today, and here are the stats of the day: 17 family workers, 6.5 hours, almost 13,000 cloves, Macgyver-level tools, 6 visiting cousins/aunties/uncles, and a hundred meaningful conversations.
Our process looked like this: split the bulbs into cloves, soak the cloves in fish emulsion, loosen the soil, poke holes in the rows with our home made dibbler, plant the cloves by hand and with our custom-made reclining trailer, rake dirt over the cloves, and cover with straw.
Popping the bulbs 
Soaking in fish emulsion 
Loosening the soil 
Our custom-made dibbler 
Planting from the trailer 
Planting by hand 
Raking and straw cover for the winter
It was a typical fall day in Minnesota; we started out in jackets, worked up to T-shirt weather, put our jackets back on for the light rain, and finished the day warm again. Here is a photo collage of our progress through the day.
The first few rows are done 
About half way 
Finished field 
Garlic rows and walking paths
The garlic will go dormant for the winter and emerge again in the spring, and we will do it all again.