Today was THE Day

Today was the day! After months of anticipation, weeks of speculation, and hours of digging (ok, maybe that was an exaggeration), I finally harvested 45 large garlic bulbs from my garden. 

Freshly Harvest Garlic

I probably could have harvested the garlic a week or two earlier, but we had some rain and I wanted to give the bulbs a little extra time to begin drying out. Since my plan is not to use all the garlic bulbs in the next 3-4 weeks, I am curing the garlic so it can be used throughout the year.  

After carefully digging each plant loose from the soil using a sturdy garden fork, I gently tapped off the majority of the soil from the bulbs and roots. Next, I layered the garlic, with all their leaves still attached, onto an old bath towel in a warm/dry spot, protected from sunlight (my garage). The plants will stay there for 1-2 weeks to dry**. After this time, the leaves should all be dead. Once this occurs, I will trim off the dead leaves (leaving about 4-5 inches of stem), clip the long roots to about 1-2 inches in length), dust off the excess dirt that remains on the bulbs, and return the garlic to the towel in the garage. After 1-2 weeks, I will transfer the bulbs to a cool/dry spot (my basement) to finish the curing process (and where I store the bulbs for future use).

Post-trimming of Garlic

** WARNING: if you don't like the smell of garlic, you may want to find a shady spot outdoors to do this step (examples: outdoor shed or barn).