Great Garlic Harvest

Once the hardneck garlic sent up their scapes I knew it wouldn't be long until the bulbs would be ready to harvest.  The leaves at the base of the plants were drying up and most plants had at least two or three dead leaves.  I cut off all of the remaining scapes and brought those inside for future use.  Whatever I didn't eat fresh was going to be dehydrated and made into green garlic powder.

 A few days before the harvest I pulled the irrigation lines off of the bed.  The dirt was very wet and I didn't want to harvest garlic in sticky clay mud.  The garlic had reached it's peak and was now dying back to prepare for the next stage of it's life cycle.

One by one my friend and I dug the bulbs out of this bed and shook off as much dirt as possible.  The pile that grew next to the bed was impressive.

Next I bundled the plants in groups of five and hung them in the breezy shade of my tiny house project.  It is currently in the gutting phase and provided the prefect atmosphere for curing my fresh garlic.

After a few weeks, they were all nice a dry and I began the task of cleaning and trimming the bulbs for storage.  I generally cut my stems a little longer than the ones that you would buy at the grocery store, but other than that they were beautiful, full heads of garlic.  I think the final count came in at around 95 heads of garlic total.  Once they were all cleaned and bagged they weighed in at around thirteen pounds.

To many people this might seem like a lot of garlic for one person, but if you consider all the pickles and salsa that I am planning to make, then the quantity might be a little more reasonable.  The largest cloves will be saved and planted this fall for next years garden.  Some of the ones that I am saving to plant are larger than the palm of my hand!