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.
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- My garlic patch is located behind my main greenhouse not far from my raspberry bushes. Garlic loves a rich fertile loam soil or a silty loam soil. It also grows best in an area that drains well – garlic cloves can rot if they sit in water or mud.
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- The main harvest time for garlic usually takes place from late July through mid-August, when the underground bulbs are dug, cured and stored for use through the colder months.
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- It is pretty easy to tell when the garlic is ready – just look at the plant. Once the top of the garlic plant begins to die back, it’s time for picking.
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- It is important to wait for a dry day to harvest – this allows the soil to dry out, helps to prevent rot, and makes it much easier to pull the stalks and bulbs from the ground.
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- Garlic bulbs are several inches deep, so Ryan loosens the soil first with a garden fork. He is careful to angle it correctly so as not to damage the garlic head underneath.
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- My trusted garden bag from my collection at QVC is nearby for any weeds or other plant depris.
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- Ryan, Carlos and Kayley worked very fast to loosen all the garlic first before pulling them from the ground.
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- We planted 22-varieties of garlic last autumn. I love to experiment with the different types to see what grows best in my garden.
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- Each garlic is pulled out carefully from the base of the leaves, so that the head comes out completely.
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- As each garlic head is removed from the soil, Ryan brushes off any debris and dirt from the bulb and the roots.
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- Here is one of the first heads picked. Ryan is wearing my garden gloves, also from my collection on QVC. We all love these gloves – they are so comfortable to wear.
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- Garlic is both delicious and nutritious. It is known to lower cholesterol, decrease the risk of coronary artery disease, and is an excellent source of minerals and vitamins, such as vitamins B6 and C.
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- There are more than 200 garlic plants, but it doesn’t take long – it takes less than an hour to harvest the entire crop after the soil around the bulbs is loosened.
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- This is Elephant garlic – our biggest variety. Jumbo sized Elephant garlic will have about eight to 11 cloves depending on the size.
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- Ryan pulls each garlic plant out and puts them neatly in wire trays. The next step is to prepare the garlic for curing. Curing is a process of letting the garlic dry in preparation for long-term storage.
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- Look at this pair. The garlic on the left still had a scape at the top. Garlic scapes are the flower buds of the garlic plants. They’re ready about a month before the actual garlic bulbs. If the garlic scapes are not pulled from the plant, the garlic’s energy continues to go to the flower – notice how much smaller the head is compared to the one on the right.
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- Here is all the garlic in the back of our Polaris Ranger. The leaves and roots can be left intact during the curing process. The bulb continues to draw energy from the leaves until all the moisture evaporates.
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- Once all the garlic is pulled, Carlos quickly cleans the bed in preparation for our next crop – I wonder what I will plant here next.
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- The clouds were rolling in over the farm – the rain was expected to be heavy, so it was crucial to get the garlic out now.
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- There’s no need to wash garlic – after all, the point is to dry them out; however, they can be cleaned and trimmed. For the curing process, the garlic was placed in my carriage house in trays where it’s dry, dark and airy.
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- Carlos put an old sheet on this table, then spread newspaper before setting the garlic down. He then separated all the heads, so there is ample space for air to circulate and dry them.
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- Kayley spreads more garlic on another table. These garlic heads are plump and healthy. All the garlic will cure here for several weeks. Ryan will also set aside the most beautiful heads with the biggest cloves to use as garlic seeds next season.
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- Well-cured, well-wrapped garlic bulbs will keep six to eight months or longer. The best storage temperature for garlic is between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit, with low humidity at about 60-percent – and never store in the refrigerator. I have lots of garlic to use and share this year.
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