This past weekend, it was time for the 2022 garlic harvest at the farm!
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| Raised bed garlic |
It's been in the ground since November so about six months, give or take a week or two. You leave it in until the tops start drying. You also give it a week without watering to allow them a chance to begin the drying process in the ground and so they won't be damaged as you gently pull them for the harvest.
Our raised bed is full of good soil and compost so they just pulled up easily.
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| Freshly pulled garlic |
I put them all into a basket and carried them to the porch. It looks like a mess but it will clean up easily.
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| Cleaning garlic after harvesting |
First you just gently pull off the dried crispy lower leaves. They really just come off as you run your hands around them to clean off some dirt etc. Just be careful not to peel off the papery skin around the head of garlic, they need to dry inside since it protects them.
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| Tying up bunches of garlic for drying |
Then I got some twine and scissors. I gathered them in bunches of six or seven, tied them together and made a loop around the other end so I could hang them.
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I used some random nails on the porch posts and hung each bunch as I completed them.
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| Hanging garlic to dry |
When I was done, I took them all to the barn and hung them on our "garlic nails" (i.e. nails I put in a few years ago for this use, ha). They need to cure in a dry area. It's dark and dry and they do nicely in there. Usually 2 or 3 weeks. One note, I realized I didn't trim the roots and roots can pull in moisture from the air. I went back and trimmed them but forgot to get a picture.
It was such a nice way to spend a hot day...sitting in rocking chair, in the shade of the porch, with a glass of iced tea while I cleaned the garlic and tied them together into bundles...
Life is good! :-)
Thanks for the post on the garlic. I planted it for the first time last fall. I did not see scapes and all of a sudden it started dying back so I was concerned.
ReplyDeleteCathy
This variety is "soft neck" (which seems counterintuitive to the way they look with the long stem, ha) but soft neck is what we grow because they do better in warm climates. If yours looked like this you probably have soft neck also. These varieties don't have the scape like the "hard neck" varieties. So the way to know when they are ready is when they started drying/dying back. Hope yours come out!!! :-)
DeleteThanks for giving the details on harvesting and drying garlic. I got some rain a few days ago, so I’m going to wait a few more days to pull mine up.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you got a very good harvest!
No problem I hope yours come out. With our heat, this weekend should be fine. Hope you get a good harvest too.
DeleteFrom the looks of it, looks like you where blessed with another abundant crop again this year.
ReplyDeleteYes, this one looks good. Some of the heads seem a bit smaller than the last time but that could be our drier than usual Winter. If we were out there full time, I'd water once a week in the Winter to make up for that. But here in the Winter I sometimes skip a weekend or two to go out. They might be a bit smaller but hey, each head will still contain multiple cloves after starting with just one so we're ok with that, ha.
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