July 18, 2018

Harvesting the Season's Garlic

It’s the perfect time to harvest my hardneck garlic.

Determining when garlic is ready to harvest can be tricky. If it’s harvested too soon, the cloves are small and underdeveloped. Harvested too late, and the clove heads begin to separate, making them more vulnerable to decay. Usually, garlic is ready for harvesting in July, but the real indicator is the plant itself - when the bottom leaves have turned brown, and the top leaves are still green. Yesterday, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, harvested our entire crop of garlic ahead of the heavy rains that were expected in the afternoon. All our varieties came from Keene Garlic, a family owned farm in Wisconsin. They include: Amish Rocambole, Armenian Porcelain, Asian Tempest, Chamisol Wild-Rocambole, Chesnok Red, Elephant garlic, Georgian Crystal Porcelain, German Extra Hardy Porcelain, German Red, Inchelium Red, Italian Red, Lorz Italian, Majestic-Porcelain, Metechi, Montana Giant-Porcelain, Music garlic, Northern White-Porcelain, Pehoski Purple, Purple Glaze, Russian Purple, Spanish Roja, and Vietnamese Red.

Enjoy these photos.