Are you getting ready?

I am. But I started from behind.
The patch of grass you see above, that's where I started and before I could begin to begin the grass had to go.
It went, quite quickly and yesterday looked like this:
Today I polished it, tossed it, and now it looks like this:
Why?
For what?
I am digging and tossing and burying kitchen scraps to prepare this newly dug plot for the planing of garlic. And next year, around November, I will harvest a crop that may well look like this:
This is a small bundle of my 2008 knobs that currently hang in my garage. I planted them in Albany in April last year and they came up a treat.
I do it every year.
Why?
Because garlic is the easiest crop to grow and because over 90% of all garlic consumed in Australia is imported from one country - China.
It makes no sense. None.
I have a friend in Shanghai. He has lived there for ten years. He told me what the exporters do to garlic and why they do it.
They eradiate it - "To shoot forth, as rays of light; to beam; to radiate."
This is done to increase shelf life, because, my friend said, food value is not the number one priority.
That is why the white garlic can sit on a shop shelf for months, in broad day and shop light, and retain its form.
Folk who have grown garlic for centuries will tell you, once harvested, the knobs must be kept in a a cool dark place.
This is where I keep mine.
And where you will keep yours.
Go to it.
For you, your family, your neighbours, your country.
(And don't forget: knobs should be kept in cool dark places, away from the madding crowd.)
(If only we could remember that.)