Impressive Garlic Harvest

HOLY GARLIC BULBS! This was one awesome harvest of some HUGE heads of garlic (at least for us).

In addition to planting our usual little plot of garlic in one of our raised beds, we also planted a sizable patch out at our new property (beside our new neighbor’s garden). All of the seed we got from our local feed store which sells garden supplies as well. We were pleasantly surprised when we pulled up some enormous heads of soft neck garlic with a smaller amount of the hard neck variety.

I’ve been using it as “green garlic” ever since we harvested but currently we are letting it cure until it is thoroughly dried out and will not mold or rot. To cure, we let the garlic sit on tarps for a while until we had the time to hang it up on our screened in porch to dry for at least a few weeks.

We plan to make garlic braids to give away and to sell and I hope to preserve a good amount of this delicious stuff by pickling and making a garlic powder and spice mix. In the past we have supplied our garlic needs for almost a full year by using what we have grown in our garden.

Additionally, we are going to try our hand at making “black garlic”–so stay tuned for an upcoming post on this antioxidant-rich gourmet delicacy.

We will definitely be planning more garlic in the fall–it might just be our best bet for an easy cash crop 🙂