Garlic Harvest

Summer is peaking and the harvest season is starting to bet busier around here.  Some things are still a few weeks away from harvest, but others like my beans and broccoli are starting to ripen quickly in the summer heat.  The garlic has started to show signs that it was ready for harvest too.  Once I cut off all the scapes it wasn't long before I noticed many of the lower leaves starting to turn brown.  I pulled the irrigation off the bed to allow it to dry out for a couple of days and then began the slow dance of loosening the bulbous roots from the soil one by one.

This is the bed before the harvest commenced.  You can see the brown tips on many of the leaves.  My research tells me that I should harvest when about half the leaves on a plant have turned brown.  The green leaves will protect the bulbs as they cure and will help them keep better for storage.

As I harvested I was happy to find that I had many really good sized bulbs.  Some were as big as my fist!  I had a few really small bulbs and a multitude of sizes in between.  I had planted a red hardneck variety and a white softneck variety.  The red hardneck produced the largest heads of garlic and will likely continue to be planted in my garden in the coming years.  They also tend to produce really large cloves which is great because they are generally easier to peel when they are big.

To cure the garlic I am hanging them on an unused loom in my back room.  Here they are protected from the elements and I can keep a fan on them to aid the curing process.  I simply tied them in small bundles and draped them over the loom.  My total count is 120 heads of garlic and I am curious as to how many pounds that will translate to when it is all said and done.  I am hoping to use lots of it up when I am canning pickles and salsa this summer.  The smaller cloves will probably get dehydrated and ground into garlic powder.  The largest will be saved and replanted this fall for next years garden.

I am very happy with this year's garlic harvest.  Now I have an endless supply of garlic to use until next year when the cycle begins again.