Around three weeks ago, I harvested a small amount of garlic I was growing in some raised garden beds. I bought a "garlic starter kit" which included a few bulbs from different garlic varieties. Amazing to see each bulb and to think a single garlic clove made that. I am really impressed they came out so good. And looking forward to starting our commercial garlic operation in a few months after seeing this harvest.
I just cut off most of the stems from these bulbs, left them on from the point of harvest up to about three weeks ago. But they have dried now, so was time to cut them. I should have probably used scissors to cut them, but I found they broke off quite easy. Seems they have dried quite a bit. As when I harvested them, I yanked them out of the ground by twisting up the stem and they were really strong. But now they break right off with very little force.
The first week with these fresh bulbs in the basement they produced a strong garlic aroma. But now I can hardly smell them at all. So I think they have dried quite well in this basement. The tempatures in there stay around 70F so that should be perfect, it is also quite dry so the bulbs should be able to cure without risk of mildew forming.
Now its time to cure them, meaning you just leave them for even longer and their flavors really start forming strongly in the bulbs. The longer the better.. up to 6 weeks to cure them fully.
Hopefully the bulbs did not mind me cleaning them up a bit. I wanted to do this as soon as I harvested them, but from the research I did said not to. So I left them alone. But now with them dried I think its a good time to remove the leaves, stems and dirty outer skin. All of this debris would be good to till back into the soil.
We have already cooked with a few bulbs, using them to make garlic butter. And it tasted great. So I guess I can use these as soon as they are out of the ground, but the longer we wait the better the flavor will be.
So now I wait until around autumn to really enjoy them, and then I am guessing they can stay good for a long time on shelves in the right conditions. A couple will go into the ground to start next years garlic beds.
If you want to try out growing a starter kit they can be found in the link below.
https://www.groworganic.com/products/down-to-earth-organic-garlic-growing-kit
It was really easy growing these bulbs, so I recommend it if you have never tried it. And now we have enough to plant more in a few months. So once you buy a kit, your set to always have new starter bulbs for the following season.
Previous posts on this project:
@solominer/garlic-bed-harvest-melons-on-the-way-peacock-update
@solominer/annuals-garden-update-may-2025
@solominer/planting-a-garlic-starter-kit
