Picking Garlic at the Farm
Here at my Bedford, New York farm, late July is garlic picking time - when the bottom leaves of the plants start to die back and turn brown, but the top leaves are still green.
Knowing when garlic is ready to pick can be tricky. If it’s harvested too soon, the cloves are small and underdeveloped. And, if done too late, the clove heads begin to separate, making them more vulnerable to decay. Garlic is divided into two categories - the supermarket variety, softneck, which produces long-lasting bulbs with many cloves around a soft center stem, and hardneck, which are noted for their stiff central stalk, fewer cloves, relatively short shelf life, and intriguingly complex flavors. All our varieties are from Keene Garlic, a family-owned farm in Wisconsin.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Every year, we plant lots of garlic in a bed behind my main greenhouse. Garlic is planted in the fall. This photo is from a sunny, mild day in mid-November of last year. I’ve been planting Keene Organics garlic for quite some time, and am always so pleased with their growth and taste.
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- Come spring, young plants are already well established and several inches tall. Garlic loves a rich fertile loam soil or a silty loam soil. It also grows best in an area that drains well – the cloves can rot if they sit in water or mud.
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- Here is the garlic bed in May – it’s growing great.
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- In June, one can see the scapes beginning to form. Garlic scapes are the flower buds of the garlic plants. They’re ready about a month before the actual garlic bulbs. Scapes are delicious and can be used just like garlic. Scapes can be cut when the center stalks are completely formed and curled ends are seen growing above the rest of the plants.
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- Here is the bed in mid-July – it just needs a little bit more time.
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- And then last week, it was time to pick. The right time to pick garlic is when the top of the garlic plant begins to die back. 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 Brian loosens the soil first with a broadfork. He does this about six inches from each bulb to avoid puncturing it.
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- A broadfork is like a tall pitchfork except it has two long handles – one on each side of a two-foot long metal crossbar from which several long tines extend down towards the ground.
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- Brian steps on the bar of the broadfork and pushes down carefully. Then he loosens the dirt just enough, so he can pick the garlic.
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- Each garlic is pulled out from the base of the leaves so that the head comes out completely. I love to experiment with the different types to see what grows best in my garden.
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- The whole garlic is called a ‘head’, a ‘bulb’, or a ‘knob. ‘ Each small, individual segment of a garlic head is a clove. 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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- It isn’t long before the entire bed is picked. This year’s crop looks great.
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- All the garlic is brought into the greenhouse, where it can start to dry.
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- The big heads are this year’s Elephant garlic – our biggest variety. Elephant garlic is actually a leek that resembles garlic in growing and in appearance. It has a very mild flavor. It is most commonly found in grocery stores. Jumbo sized Elephant garlic will have about eight to 11 cloves depending on the size.
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- 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. There’s no need to wash garlic – the point is to dry them out; however, they can be cleaned and trimmed. Ryan cuts off the top of each garlic leaving about a three to four-inch stalk.
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- Trimming the stalks makes it easier to store and keeps them neat and uniform.
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- This is a garlic bulbil. A bulbil is a false seed grown by a garlic plant in order to reproduce. They are miniature clones of the garlic plant itself, which can also be planted like the seed garlic.
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- Once all the garlic is trimmed, it is placed into a wire tray and left to cure. On another dry day, the trays will all move into the old corn crib, where they can continue to cure for several weeks.
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- In all, four large trays filled with garlic – that’s a great bounty. Finally, once the garlic is cured, Ryan will 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 garlic in the refrigerator. I will soon have lots of delicious garlic to use and share.
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