I just had my first successful garlic harvest yesterday. It pales in comparison to yours. My wife and I were thrilled. It was glorious. Thanks for the inspo!
Oh I harvested mine yesterday and it was a great crop! I also planted carrots between the garlic and did not thin. When I pulled the garlic a few carrots came out. It was pretty satisfying !
I must concur with many of the commentators, your joy is addicting!!! You and James Prigioni are so super stoked to be in the garden it is such a happy thing to watch. And your gardening is wow too. I left some garlic and onions in the garden from last year because you told me that onions are biennials. When you pulled that ginormous brown skin onion out of the ground you said you would save it for next year. I was like what??? And then I found out that you would re plant it next year for seeds to make more big onions. I thank you for your channel on You Tube.
As soon as I saw this, I went and harvested mine because it looked just like yours, mine too is the best crop I’ve ever had! Crazy awesome growing season.
😂 I share your joy and smiles! I harvested my garlic this week and it is like Christmas for gardeners!! 🎉 I love growing it and watching you be so happy! Congrats!!😊
My garlic is suddenly looking ready too and I was worried because it's so early! (Growing in Eastern Mass.) So happy to see so many other's finding the same thing this year!
Love your enthusiasm! I’m so jealous of your haul. Last October I planted a huge bed of garlic I bought from Amazon. Guess what? Not one single bulb came up. So disappointing. Bought lots of onions seeds from Migardner so that bed is now filled up with onions that look fantastic. Waiting for the restock of garlic in your shop to buy to plant this year.
I tried that with Okinawan sweet potatoes trying to get slips to start. Each one rotted before putting out a single slip. The problem is that often some of this stuff is shipped overseas, which means they typically irradiate or otherwise treat it, which knocks out its viability. Thank goodness I found someone on the Facebook marketplace living at least in the same state as me who was very generous with her slips. I am very wary about ordering growables on Amazon. Sometimes they never grow, or it's something different from what you ordered. Like one banana plant my wife bought me for my birthday. Advertised as the Blue Java ice cream banana plant, but turns out it was most likely an entirely different (albeit still delicious from what I hear) variety.
I love your excitement when gardening. Your garlic looks great. Mine is ready here in Ohio too but I am going to try to wait a couple of days for it to dry out a bit before harvesting. We have been getting so much rain the last couple of days. I know mine always keeps longer if I harvest it when it is dry.
This has been an exciting week! Garlic harvest was Sunday, and ours looked a lot like yours! I planted hardneck and softneck all together last October after digging up our sweet potatoes. They went in double rows at 4" spacing, with 18" between each double row. Put a cover crop of peas, oats and mustard over top with another inch of compost over. It all grew nicely until January, when the freeze killed the cover crop. Put some shredded leaves over top and waited for early spring. Then it was only a few shots of compost tea while it was growing, and we got our best harvest yet! I was as shocked as you were when I started pulling up these monsters! Now sweet potato slips are back in the bed and looking forward to October again. 😊
Luke, your enthusiasm is so awesome! Thank you so much for sharing your fanastic gardening tips, advise and knowhow. My veggie gardening has been taken to a whole new level thanks to you!
@@amy_soucy Our garlic has not started turning brown either. We are located across Lake Michigan in Wisconsin. We have had a lot of rain! We use a garden pitch fork to gently lift the garlic out of the soil. Wait a few days for your soil to dry so you don’t have muddy bulbs. Luke your garlic is huge. Great job. Happiness abounds!!🧄
Harvested half of mine. Waiting for the other half to be ready. Still watering some, waiting for others to have more brown leaves before pulling. Love hearing your excitement.
Friends, I lived on an organic farm that sold seed garlic, and my husband supervised garlic harvesting and processing. PLEASE do not pull your garlic up like this. Use a trowel to gently lift the bulb - pulling like this can damage the skin and cause bulbs to rot.
I just pulled my garlic and had the same experience. All the garlic were big and healthy. I pulled 75 garlic heads these past few weeks in total. So fun! And great for all my cooking dishes.
Loved watching how excited you got. I hope I'm the same way when it's time here to harvest. I just harvested my scapes a few days ago so it's getting close.
I LOVE your enthusiasm! I tried garlic for the very first time this year. It was a flip. The only garlic that seemed to do well was the elephant garlic. I need to take a look at your garden bed prep
I bought your garlic last year from the website and I also got massive garlics. I've never seen garlic so large, there's a couple that are larger than the palm of my hand.
@@cct9194 in a slow cooker on warm rap heads in clingwrap then aluminum foil it takes about 3 weeks then dehydrat some and grind in coffee bean grinder
I love your joy! But I have garlic envy!😂 I pulled mine up this morning, and they were all much smaller than what they were last year. But I will try again!
QUESTION: What size bulbs should I set aside for seed garlic? The normal size or the big ones? Does anyone braid for storage? (My harvest was fantastic and also early in KC this year, too). Thanks, Luke, for sharing your knowledge AND your joy! 🤩
Been a good year for garlic. I had a few Persian Star that were fat and globe shaped. The individual cloves became more apparent a week or so into curing.
Did you prune the elephant garlic scape the same time as the rest that looked amazing I’m waiting for my first harvest in Colorado. Leaves haven’t started dying back yet.
I've harvested half my garlic and came up with a number of solo/mono garlic that was one single giant clove/bulb. Any idea what would happen if I saved these and planted them for next season?
I love growing garlic. I am on my 4th year. I plant in spring and fall. This year I did hard and soft neck. I noticed the soft neck were a bit small this year. Any tips?
I had my most successful garlic harvest this year. More than 30 balls. 8 nearly tennis ball size. Definitely saving the largest cloves for fall planting. Got my “seed” from natural grocer. Don’t know exact origin but all soft neck.
I looked at my garlic tops and they don't look quite ready yet. I'll wait another week or so before digging it up. ...can hardly wait! We're nearly out of garlic in our kitchen.
I harvested mine this morning. First year for me so I am just hoping I did things correctly. Aside from the elephant garlic, I got the others from you. German is the one that did the best followed by Ivan. Music did poorly, very small bulb but it still looks pretty. Hopefully I can keep a couple of the German and Ivan and replant them this Fall.
I planted for the first time this year. Mine have another bulb like area growing an inch or two above the In ground bulbs. What causes this? These did not produce scapes so they were soft neck. I can’t wait to get garlic from your store this year.
I planted in the fall, it greened up, I left it to overwinter, and nothing. 😢. Maybe I put it in too early? I was told it would be fine but nothing, nada, zip, zilch. Not one green sprout. Do I dig it up and start over this fall or wait it out? I’m in Iowa. It was so pretty 😭. And it was MI Gardener starts!
Hi Luke, you said to harvest when 50 -75% of the leaves are dead. The first several i watched you pull only had maybe one yellow " dead looking" leaf. Am I wrong or missing something?
This past fall was my first time planting garlic. I planted 21 bulbs. I have 9 left bc my chickens ruined it. Anyways, i wasnt sure when to pull it. Mistake #1 Imade from watching this was that ivelet it flower. Thanks for your videos and teaching me what to do with my things. Round 2 will be this coming fall. Hopefully my chickens will stay out. I have a better set up now to keep them out of it.
Nice growth for not being in a Mediterranean climate. It practically grows wild here in Seattle especially elephant garlic. They also produce corms which end up being left in the soil. They soon germinate and grow into a single bulb elephant garlic. Since our winters around here are mild these single bulb elephant garlic survive and are ready to harvest by the next summer
I live in zone 5b in Illinois not sure what variety of hardneck I have grown but for 20 yrs it has regrown every year and spread more in area it is growing in all on it's own figured it was due to missed scapes but also think it is due to unharvested bulbs..even with our harshest winters and hottest dry summers it just keeps right on going..this year I got a lot of big bulbs ( 2-3" across the bottom) without thinning them outline I usually have too..I used no fertilizer no watering during really hot and dry periods even though we had a lot of record heat index days in June and July and very little rain during those times , in fact we were in a drought condition..
Hm... Maybe I should experiment this upcoming year. Grow garlic around the perimeter of the raised garden bed, and interplant it with fast growing plants like radishes or perennial herbs like basil. Then, try to mend/compost the soil at the center of the garden bed during spring (our spring is too cold for a lot of plants/seedlings). Once it finally warms up (end of May usually), is when I can harden my spring/summer seedling plants. I planted garlic last autumn, but only one out of the bunch have survived (first time trying as a newbie gardener). Too much rain in the autumn season, and winter has been pretty warm/dry for the Northeast.
I’ve had that issue, squirrel love garlic and onions. I found placing a nylon netting over the what I plant- let the cloves or sets get a deep start. After a few months, they seem to no longer be interested in my crop. I then remove the netting, save for use next year.
I harvest all my elephant garlic 4 days ago it’s start splitting on neck area,we have so much rain ,so I dig them out. Now I still have another kind still there ,I look today on it’s still green more ,so I think I wait till next week. I already plant there today carrots and basilica.Cabbage in containers waiting .
If I buy seeds for next year how can I keep them from going bad I bought some of your tomato seeds last year and they didn't grow this year so I'm wondering what I did or what I can do to keep them good until I'm ready to use them next year
I have a QUESTION: How can I dry/keep/use CUBAN Oregano? I have an overabundance of it, and don't have a large family, and I want to make good use of it ALL! 😊 Any assistance/advice you can provide, I would be most grateful!!!
Its possible to craft a garlic digger. Basically a flat horizontal blade attached to a pto that goes under the heads to loosen them up and make it easy to pull. If youre doing acres of garlic it is worth it. That a d a garlic planter
So I normally let my garlic die back a little more than this and let the top half of the plant die completely back, but after seeing these results, I might be going out and harvesting my crop this afternoon. I agree it was a great year for garlic. Once it warmed up, it stayed warm and wet and some of my stems are the thickest I have ever seen.
This video brought me so much joy. When you see someone so giddy over doing something they love, and it is so wholesome, it makes me happy!
me, too!
Any day you’re looking down at a plant instead of up at the roots it’s a good day!
I just had my first successful garlic harvest yesterday. It pales in comparison to yours. My wife and I were thrilled. It was glorious. Thanks for the inspo!
Oh I harvested mine yesterday and it was a great crop! I also planted carrots between the garlic and did not thin. When I pulled the garlic a few carrots came out. It was pretty satisfying !
I must concur with many of the commentators, your joy is addicting!!! You and James Prigioni are so super stoked to be in the garden it is such a happy thing to watch. And your gardening is wow too. I left some garlic and onions in the garden from last year because you told me that onions are biennials. When you pulled that ginormous brown skin onion out of the ground you said you would save it for next year. I was like what??? And then I found out that you would re plant it next year for seeds to make more big onions. I thank you for your channel on You Tube.
As soon as I saw this, I went and harvested mine because it looked just like yours, mine too is the best crop I’ve ever had! Crazy awesome growing season.
Where's your garden fork dude? lol Harvested half of mine and this weekend the rest is coming out. Thanks for being awesome Luke.
I live in Rochester NY and I noticed my garlic looks ready now. I normally harvest after 4th of July but I'm doing it tomorrow. You the man Luke!
I used your bulb protect and feed as well and had an epic harvest! Epic!! Will definitely use it again 😊
I planted migardener garlic last year and just pulled mine as well. Awesome harvest!
😂 I share your joy and smiles! I harvested my garlic this week and it is like Christmas for gardeners!! 🎉 I love growing it and watching you be so happy! Congrats!!😊
Your excitement is so contagious! I was smiling and even giggling? Right along with you! Well done!
I literally felt the excitement in this video . Great year for garlic as well for me this year . 😊
I love your joy, Luke! Garlic makes me happy too.
Love the infectious excitement. Can't wait to see if my garlic harvest is just as tremendous!
My garlic is suddenly looking ready too and I was worried because it's so early! (Growing in Eastern Mass.) So happy to see so many other's finding the same thing this year!
I absolutely love his sheer joy
Love your enthusiasm! I’m so jealous of your haul. Last October I planted a huge bed of garlic I bought from Amazon. Guess what? Not one single bulb came up. So disappointing. Bought lots of onions seeds from Migardner so that bed is now filled up with onions that look fantastic. Waiting for the restock of garlic in your shop to buy to plant this year.
@judy
Amazon?. Go straight to companies you can actually talk to people
Same here. I got them off of Amazon and that was a big mistake.
I tried that with Okinawan sweet potatoes trying to get slips to start. Each one rotted before putting out a single slip. The problem is that often some of this stuff is shipped overseas, which means they typically irradiate or otherwise treat it, which knocks out its viability. Thank goodness I found someone on the Facebook marketplace living at least in the same state as me who was very generous with her slips. I am very wary about ordering growables on Amazon. Sometimes they never grow, or it's something different from what you ordered. Like one banana plant my wife bought me for my birthday. Advertised as the Blue Java ice cream banana plant, but turns out it was most likely an entirely different (albeit still delicious from what I hear) variety.
Your enthusiasm is awesome!
I love your excitement when gardening. Your garlic looks great. Mine is ready here in Ohio too but I am going to try to wait a couple of days for it to dry out a bit before harvesting. We have been getting so much rain the last couple of days. I know mine always keeps longer if I harvest it when it is dry.
This has been an exciting week! Garlic harvest was Sunday, and ours looked a lot like yours! I planted hardneck and softneck all together last October after digging up our sweet potatoes. They went in double rows at 4" spacing, with 18" between each double row. Put a cover crop of peas, oats and mustard over top with another inch of compost over. It all grew nicely until January, when the freeze killed the cover crop. Put some shredded leaves over top and waited for early spring. Then it was only a few shots of compost tea while it was growing, and we got our best harvest yet! I was as shocked as you were when I started pulling up these monsters! Now sweet potato slips are back in the bed and looking forward to October again. 😊
I love how excited some garlic made you 😊. I’d be SOOO excited too. I think I might give it a try this year!!
Your excitement made me smile.
My garlic leaves are so tall, up to my waist right now!! I'm hoping for a really good harvest soon! Scapes are just starting to form
Same here, have never seen garlic grow like this before, I'm 6ft and it's up to my chest
We planted 1100 cloves and we just harvested and holy cow did the garlic do great this year!! So excited to put it away for the year!!
Luke, your enthusiasm is so awesome! Thank you so much for sharing your fanastic gardening tips, advise and knowhow. My veggie gardening has been taken to a whole new level thanks to you!
I spent $150 at the local MI Gardener’s store on garlic cloves, time to dig them up!
Are you in the same climate? Mine are not ready yet.
@@amy_soucy Our garlic has not started turning brown either. We are located across Lake Michigan in Wisconsin. We have had a lot of rain! We use a garden pitch fork to gently lift the garlic out of the soil. Wait a few days for your soil to dry so you don’t have muddy bulbs.
Luke your garlic is huge. Great job. Happiness abounds!!🧄
I bought 3 heads 7 years ago and never had to buy them again. I plant about 200 every year now and able to have garlic the whole year 😊
Great harvest Luke! Will pick mine in a week or two.👍🏻
I’d never use that much garlic lol
Harvested half of mine. Waiting for the other half to be ready. Still watering some, waiting for others to have more brown leaves before pulling. Love hearing your excitement.
Incredible size! Awesome!
It's better to use a garden fork to gently lift up the entire plant than to just pull on it. Use the fork, Luke!
I usually dig my hand underneath and gently push up but I don't have a lot to harvest, maybe 2 or 3 rows
>
lol. Some of us get it !
I’m planting 1,000 this fall. Most is sold already! Fun crop!
Friends, I lived on an organic farm that sold seed garlic, and my husband supervised garlic harvesting and processing. PLEASE do not pull your garlic up like this. Use a trowel to gently lift the bulb - pulling like this can damage the skin and cause bulbs to rot.
Doesn’t it depend on how soft your soil is?
right? I use a digging fork
Do you wash them after or wait til the soil on the bulb is dry and dry wipe it?
Do you have a website that I can go visit? Would like to check out your seed garlic 🧄 ❤
@@Gen2GenHomesteadWait till they're dry. It also helps if you harvest after a few dry days. Any way you can avoid moisture is good.
Love the enthusiasm
Great haul. Mine came out last month.
Those look great Luke
Great harvest. I find that by digging them out the bulbs don't break off.
I just pulled my garlic and had the same experience. All the garlic were big and healthy. I pulled 75 garlic heads these past few weeks in total. So fun! And great for all my cooking dishes.
Pure joy came through.
Loved watching how excited you got. I hope I'm the same way when it's time here to harvest. I just harvested my scapes a few days ago so it's getting close.
I LOVE your enthusiasm!
I tried garlic for the very first time this year. It was a flip. The only garlic that seemed to do well was the elephant garlic. I need to take a look at your garden bed prep
I'm so jealous! Life goals for sure!
I bought your garlic last year from the website and I also got massive garlics. I've never seen garlic so large, there's a couple that are larger than the palm of my hand.
That's a great harvest. I haven't had much luck with garlic. It's probably too hot here.
I make some of mine into black garlic and dry some for black garlic powder so good
How do you process it into black garlic?
@@cct9194 in a slow cooker on warm rap heads in clingwrap then aluminum foil it takes about 3 weeks then dehydrat some and grind in coffee bean grinder
Pulled mine today and my German garlic all were as big as your biggest one you showed. All thanks to trifecta +
this is so fun! I feel like I'm pulling them out too
I love your joy! But I have garlic envy!😂 I pulled mine up this morning, and they were all much smaller than what they were last year. But I will try again!
These are beautiful
I laugh like you do when I’m harvesting my garlic 🤣🤣💕
QUESTION: What size bulbs should I set aside for seed garlic? The normal size or the big ones? Does anyone braid for storage? (My harvest was fantastic and also early in KC this year, too). Thanks, Luke, for sharing your knowledge AND your joy! 🤩
Always replant the biggest cloves. Softneck garlic can be braided. Hardneck cannot.
Been a good year for garlic. I had a few Persian Star that were fat and globe shaped. The individual cloves became more apparent a week or so into curing.
we had else nino this year in SoCal and my garlic was huge as well some were softball sized! and no, not elephant garlic, we planted Russian red
Love your enthusiasm! Will you sell small quantities for growing in the fall?
Did you prune the elephant garlic scape the same time as the rest that looked amazing I’m waiting for my first harvest in Colorado. Leaves haven’t started dying back yet.
@@Crashbangable Elephant garlic is actually a form of leek. I don't think it produces scapes.
I've harvested half my garlic and came up with a number of solo/mono garlic that was one single giant clove/bulb. Any idea what would happen if I saved these and planted them for next season?
I have to wait for a dryer day 😊 i did music garlic this year
I'm going to harvesting mine today, right before 4th July
Nice Garlic Luke😁🇦🇺
He's like a kid in a candy store! Love it.
WOW! lucky you!!!
I'll be harvesting mine next month in July.
I'm in Michigan too and my garlic has been exceptionally excellent this year too. Could the warmer, wetter winter have helped out?
Fun harvest, huge heads!
I love growing garlic. I am on my 4th year. I plant in spring and fall. This year I did hard and soft neck. I noticed the soft neck were a bit small this year. Any tips?
Good job my boy ❤❤❤
I need to try bold plus this fall for pur garlic.
Great looking heads of hardneck Luke. I have another week or two before I pull mine up.
When do you expect to have bulbs in stock for sale this year ?
Looking good brother!
I am trying to get beets to grow how long does it take to a crop
I had my most successful garlic harvest this year. More than 30 balls. 8 nearly tennis ball size. Definitely saving the largest cloves for fall planting. Got my “seed” from natural grocer. Don’t know exact origin but all soft neck.
I looked at my garlic tops and they don't look quite ready yet. I'll wait another week or so before digging it up. ...can hardly wait! We're nearly out of garlic in our kitchen.
I harvested mine this morning. First year for me so I am just hoping I did things correctly. Aside from the elephant garlic, I got the others from you. German is the one that did the best followed by Ivan. Music did poorly, very small bulb but it still looks pretty. Hopefully I can keep a couple of the German and Ivan and replant them this Fall.
I harvested a little early too. They weren't quite as big as yours, but not bad.
Love your reaction to your garlic crop! I wasn't disappointed with mine but would of been more ecstatic if my garlic was bigger, like yours...lol
I suggest you use a garden fork to loosen the garlic before you pull. You’ll have much better results.
Mine is almost ready! Maybe another week!
The beginning made me laugh 😂
Can you also eat the stalk of garlic? Saute? When should I order? If I order now will it be ok until the Fall? Live in northern MA
I planted for the first time this year. Mine have another bulb like area growing an inch or two above the In ground bulbs. What causes this? These did not produce scapes so they were soft neck. I can’t wait to get garlic from your store this year.
I planted in the fall, it greened up, I left it to overwinter, and nothing. 😢. Maybe I put it in too early? I was told it would be fine but nothing, nada, zip, zilch. Not one green sprout. Do I dig it up and start over this fall or wait it out? I’m in Iowa. It was so pretty 😭. And it was MI Gardener starts!
Nice harvest
When do you use the Bulb Plus?
Awesome!
Hi Luke, you said to harvest when 50 -75% of the leaves are dead. The first several i watched you pull only had maybe one yellow " dead looking" leaf. Am I wrong or missing something?
What to do with the garlic stem after you remove the head? Do you compost it?
This past fall was my first time planting garlic. I planted 21 bulbs. I have 9 left bc my chickens ruined it. Anyways, i wasnt sure when to pull it. Mistake #1 Imade from watching this was that ivelet it flower. Thanks for your videos and teaching me what to do with my things. Round 2 will be this coming fall. Hopefully my chickens will stay out. I have a better set up now to keep them out of it.
Nice growth for not being in a Mediterranean climate. It practically grows wild here in Seattle especially elephant garlic. They also produce corms which end up being left in the soil. They soon germinate and grow into a single bulb elephant garlic. Since our winters around here are mild these single bulb elephant garlic survive and are ready to harvest by the next summer
I live in zone 5b in Illinois not sure what variety of hardneck I have grown but for 20 yrs it has regrown every year and spread more in area it is growing in all on it's own figured it was due to missed scapes but also think it is due to unharvested bulbs..even with our harshest winters and hottest dry summers it just keeps right on going..this year I got a lot of big bulbs ( 2-3" across the bottom) without thinning them outline I usually have too..I used no fertilizer no watering during really hot and dry periods even though we had a lot of record heat index days in June and July and very little rain during those times , in fact we were in a drought condition..
In zone 6b, is it too early to plant garlic?
Congrats !!! 😂😂😂
That IS a Great garlic harvest, lol...
❤❤
Hm... Maybe I should experiment this upcoming year. Grow garlic around the perimeter of the raised garden bed, and interplant it with fast growing plants like radishes or perennial herbs like basil. Then, try to mend/compost the soil at the center of the garden bed during spring (our spring is too cold for a lot of plants/seedlings). Once it finally warms up (end of May usually), is when I can harden my spring/summer seedling plants.
I planted garlic last autumn, but only one out of the bunch have survived (first time trying as a newbie gardener). Too much rain in the autumn season, and winter has been pretty warm/dry for the Northeast.
🤩🤩🤩🤩nice one
What time of year did you plant this garlic? If in fall, do you cover it during winter or just leave it be?
Wow that's great. I planted some elephant garlic but none of it grew for me. Maybe the squirrels got it after I planted it...darn squirrels 🐿 😂
I’ve had that issue, squirrel love garlic and onions. I found placing a nylon netting over the what I plant- let the cloves or sets get a deep start. After a few months, they seem to no longer be interested in my crop. I then remove the netting, save for use next year.
@katiemoyer8679 good idea
I harvest all my elephant garlic 4 days ago it’s start splitting on neck area,we have so much rain ,so I dig them out. Now I still have another kind still there ,I look today on it’s still green more ,so I think I wait till next week. I already plant there today carrots and basilica.Cabbage in containers waiting .
Hey Luke haven't gotten scapes, but my stems are falling over. Should I harvest my garlic?
Did you plant in the spring or fall? Soft neck or hard neck?
If I buy seeds for next year how can I keep them from going bad I bought some of your tomato seeds last year and they didn't grow this year so I'm wondering what I did or what I can do to keep them good until I'm ready to use them next year
I have a QUESTION:
How can I dry/keep/use CUBAN Oregano?
I have an overabundance of it, and don't have a large family, and I want to make good use of it ALL! 😊
Any assistance/advice you can provide, I would be most grateful!!!
Do they need full sun or can it be partial shade?
Its possible to craft a garlic digger. Basically a flat horizontal blade attached to a pto that goes under the heads to loosen them up and make it easy to pull. If youre doing acres of garlic it is worth it. That a d a garlic planter
So I normally let my garlic die back a little more than this and let the top half of the plant die completely back, but after seeing these results, I might be going out and harvesting my crop this afternoon. I agree it was a great year for garlic. Once it warmed up, it stayed warm and wet and some of my stems are the thickest I have ever seen.
Replying to self: my garlic was ready! Some of it was past ready and was already separating at the neck. The average bulb was bigger than a golf ball!
I got the biggest garlic this year ever. Yours looks like mine. I was surprised.