We were late getting our cloves in the ground (November) but almost all of the garlic we planted raised their pointy green heads this Spring and we hovered over them, snipping off their scapes and checking the state of their advancement from the green to the yellow leaf spectrum. Some of the garlics were flopping over entirely, so after some consultation with Linda and her love, Leo, my personal Garlic Guru, who lives one garden zone south, I yanked up a few bundles to see how the bulbs were filling out.
Some heads of garlic were small, some were plump, but all looked ready to cure. I yanked them all out, tied then into clumps of 7 or 8 with twine and have them hanging in our open-ended garden shed. It's been a week of curing time now, and their formerly damp, purplish skins are turning into the papery white heads that I am used to with store-bought garlic.
My garlic investment has been rewarded six times over from the initial sack of garlic we planted, so I am very happy. It's an easy crop to grow, as I didn't really need to weed or water it much and my most voracious garden pests (voles, Japanese beetles, flea beetles, cutworms) don't seem to mess with the Stinking Rose.
I found some good information about harvesting garlic here at this website, although the authors gave me frights with their warnings about treating garlic like eggs and having only up to a week to harvest the garlic to avoid ruining your crop. I tried to avoid bruising the garlic and will pick the fattest, healthiest cloves to replant later this Fall. As they adapt to my soil and micro-climate, I should have some even plumper, more spectacular garlic in the years to come.
To celebrate my homegrown garlic harvest, I'd love to hear about any recipes or special ways of preparing my favorite Allium. Garlic, yum..........
5 comments:
Rachel, thanks for the great lesson on planting and harvesting garlic. I really didn't know how it was cured. Larry and I are thinking about trying a small garden next year...with a lot of fencing, of course.
Oh my Gosh...it's absolutely beautiful!!! Garlic is one of my favorite things in the whole wide world...I am cheesin' over this photo...how awesome for you :D (luv the plaque, too)
Never knew of a home gardener who planted garlic. I'll be anxious to know if the freshness from ground to table shows up in the taste.
Arlene: I understand that most deer will leave garlic alone, so perhaps you can plant this safely in your woodland bower next year.
Joan: I have used some of the garlic fresh out of the ground when I broke off the stalk from too-vigorous harvesting. It was milder but still good for sauteeing with greens and zucchini. I'll have to remember to do an update report when I start using my own garlic after it cures another couple of weeks.
I am so jealous! Ours went in late too and as soon as shoots were above the ground the slugs munched them. Hoping for better luck this year.
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