It's garlic harvest time!
Actually, it was garlic harvest time two weeks ago for me here (last week of May), but I have been so busy harvesting all sorts of different crops from the food forest, so I have not had time to post the garlic update until now.
Garlic is my favorite crop to grow. It requires very little attention from me during the growing season. Not too many pests bother garlic. And best of all, we always seem to consume all the garlic we grow. Of course I always save the largest cloves for replanting in the Fall. It has been years since we had to purchase garlic form the grocery stores.
From my past experience, garlic seems to cure better if I stop watering two to three weeks prior to harvest time. Rain just prior to harvest time can cause the protective garlic wrappers to split. Without proper protective skin, garlic tends to rot in storage. However, with all the Spring rain we received this year, it presented a challenge for most people growing garlic in our area. I have spoken to my favorite local farmer. He told me he would have to dry most of the garlic he harvested this year because all the rain has caused his garlic to split and some of them have started to rot in the ground.
My husband and I visited this farmer mentioned above prior to starting our food forest journey. The old farmer told us that our area tend to receive a lot of rain right around the time when we were supposed to harvest garlic. He joked around and said that farmers just had to work with whatever the Mother Nature gave us. The year we visited his farm, we also received a ton of Spring rain. The farmer pulled out some of his garlic to show me what rain did to his harvest. I have always known we want to grow garlic, so I kept this in mind when my husband started building our raised beds in the garden.
When my husband first built the raised beds, he attached some PVC hoops at the top, so we could use shade tarps in the Summer months when it gets too hot and greenhouse plastic when it's freezing cold in the Winter months. We also use the PVC hoops and shade tarps when we have bad storms with hail. This has saved our crops many times in the past. The PVC hoops also come in handy when it won't stop raining prior to garlic harvest time. We are able to use greenhouse plastic on top to stop the rain for our garlic in the raised beds a couple of weeks prior to harvest time. This has worked perfectly for us every year. I don't have to worry about too much rain coming down just prior to garlic harvest time causing issues for my homegrown garlic in storage.
The harvested garlic are now hanging in the house to cure. When we enter our house, it smells like an Italian restaurant. It should take 4 to 6 weeks for this job to complete. When you purchase limes or onions from the grocery stores, save the mash bags. Store the cured, trimmed homegrown garlic in the mash bags in a dark, cool place. Depending on variety, they should last from 4 to 12 months in storage. Homegrown garlic is my favorite crop to share with friends and visiting guests.
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Thank you so much!
You plant a month earlier than I do and harvest a month earlier. My scapes have just started here, so I'll be making pesto in the next week. Harvest is mid to late July here in Mass.
What variety is that? Mine is German Extra Hardy, cause I LOVE scape pesto. :))
Our favorite variety is shandong garlic. This is what you see in the photos. I did not take pictures of Music garlic. I have been told we should be growing softneck variety of garlic in our climate, but we love garlic scapes, so we grow the hardneck varieties instead.
I love the way garlic scape smells after it is cut. It reminds me of my mom's kitchen. Makes me homesick. I have never use scape to make pesto. Have you already done a post in the past? Do you mind sharing the link to that post if you have already shared it before? Would love to try that next year when I have garlic scapes again.
I have done a post:
https://steemit.com/homesteading/@goldenoakfarm/making-garlic-scape-pesto
That's the thing about the net, people are at different times, in addition to far away. I am always reminded about spruce tips by @walkerland long after mine are gone...
Wow, that garlic scape pesto looks great! Thanks for sharing it with me.
It is wonderful and the best part is I freeze it and use it medicinally during the winter for when I get sick. Plus I snack on it any time. :))
I need to go look up when my harvest time is!! I've got garlic, scallions, elephant garlic and leeks... Lots of Alina but I'm still definitely learning, I missed harvesting last year's and that's part of why I have so many!! 🤪
Wow, that big already!
Where do you come from? Here in Northern Germany it will last at least two month till we might harvest such pretty grown exemplaries... ;-)
I am in Oklahoma USA. We plant our garlic gloves here in the Fall around September. We harvest garlic around late May to early June.
Despite using so much garlic in our cooking, I've never seen a garlic plant! They look nothing like what I would have expected... more like leeks? Anyway, when you hang them up to dry, do you have a special room for them with warm dry air blowing on them... or just a regular room?
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@bengy you can grow garluc easily even in your small garden. I dry mine under my backyard gazebo! Dry plus airflow.
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Oh, I will definitely think about setting space for it!
Thank you for featuring me in your curation contest! Garlic looks very much like leeks. They are super easy to grow and requires very little garden space. Our house has two floors. The first floor is more like a garage. Our main living space is on the second floor. We hang our harvested garlic on the first floor/garage of our house. We put a fan on it for air circulation. No special room needed. Some people just hang them in a spare closet with a fan. You can even cure garlic hanging outdoors as long as it is away from sunlight and rain. Give garlic growing a try. I bet you will be shocked with how easy it is to grow your own garlic.
Love the hoops...thats awesome. Love growing garluc, its a great crop to grow. Love seeing you back in Steemit.
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Thank you. I am glad to be back!
Thank you for talking to me when I needed a friend. I appreciate you more than you know.
Aw anytime you know im here. It felt good to help in the small way I could. Think of you often. 🦋
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Hola @thelaundrylady! Interesante publicacion, nunca he sembrado ajo, lo intentare, llegue a su publicación porque @bengy te presento en el concurso pay it forward, te invito a participar
Gracias!
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beautiful garlic - one of my favourite crops to grow. I really love the hoop you have on the beds - I've had wooden frames on ours which is not very convenient - I just took it all down this year to start anew but I've been cutting sticks and using them for my netting and it isn't the best.
I was doing the wood and stick thing a few years back, but just when I thought it was good enough, the wood would start to deteriorate. Then I had to start all over again. I love the way wooden frames look. They look more natural, but they don't last forever and I seem to be getting lazier and lazier as I get older. PVC does not look as cool, but I don't have to think about replacing them every few years, so it's good enough in my book :-)
That's what I was thinking. Every year I spend ages messing around trying to fix or replace them as they rot out so quickly here. I don't have quite the zest for it myself, totally less keen on repeating jobs over and over as I get older.
I've visited you from checking out @bengy's curation entry and love your post! I've been trying to get into the garlic growing game, I think I'm going to give it a try this year now that I've got my garden planted. How much room do you need for the plants to grow garlic successfully? I don't have any more big pots left but I do have two smaller ones, perhaps 6 inch wide pots? Hoping I can put at least 1 bulb in each.
Thank you. Garlic needs very little space. All it needs is space for garlic bulb in the ground to grow. Garlic is probably the easiest thing I grow. You should totally try growing two garlic gloves in your smaller pots. Depending on variety, some bulbs get larger than others. Search the best time to plant garlic cloves in your area. You will be surprised with how easy and carefree it is to grow garlic.
Hi @thelaundrylady!! I see the Food Forest is doing wonderfully. Great idea with the pvc pipe. I haven't done a garden for the past 3 years (yikes) Even though we're at an elevation, we're still a desert climate, so the intensity of the sun makes is so much harder. I was thinking of something like that to help prevent the plants from burning.
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Hey there! What a great set-up you've got there. You can protect the crops against severe weather, be it hot or rainy. Fantastic!
Eheheh. I hope you don't get teased by your friends because of that! 😂
4 to 12 months in storage, really? And how is it stored?
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Thank you. I am really happy with the setup. Have not had to redo for 4 years now. The tops are cut off after they are cured. They are stored in the red mash bags like you see in the pictures above and in a dark, cool place which is our bedroom in our house. I grate the garlic when they start to sprout and freeze the grated garlic for later use.