Just pulled garlic

Harvested yesterday. I'll hang these to dry today.  A point of reference for size is the 'c' battery.  The bulb below it measured just a hair shy of 3-1/4 inches diameter.   Much happier with this years harvest compared to last year. Once cured and cleaned up, I'll roast some, etc. then dehydrate and grind the rest.

Yum!  Those look beautiful.  Do you remember which variety they are?

Windmere wrote:Yum!  Those look beautiful.  Do you remember which variety they are?

Thank you, Windmere, and yes I do, those are all German Red. Same ones I've been planting and replanting the past couple years.

Gorgeous! LM, do you grow your garlic in MM?

Yes, Mel's Mix !

LM, Nice!

That's another variety I was thinking of trying... How do they taste, LM?

Those garlic look good 3.5 inches .... hmmmmm.   my garlic are asking me for scuba gear it's that wet here .

We've picked up & retained a bend in the jet stream , the lowest point is about 200 miles to our south west and it's bringing in days and days of rain , lashing rain and stair rods of rain .

 If it weren't for all my beds draining down so well due to me using pure MM & (  grit & sand free) home made compost  I'd have lost everything except a few weeds and some bolting lettuce .
 We've had the wettest June on record and it looks like July must be close to beating it as we pass the half way of the month mark .

 LM , when you say you'll roast and grind the rest what does that entail ?
 
Last years garlics  dried too much and went powdery after about 9 months of hanging exposed to the air , storage in the office

I can reply now to Atlanta Marie and Plantoid,

Atl. Marie -German Red is a northern hardneck variety that I understand needs to be in the ground with cold Autumn and Winter weather.  I'm not saying it won't work down south by you, just not sure how well.

Plantoid - somewhere on the forum I have pictures of my dehydrator ( a cheap one) where I just sliced or chunked garlic ( don't remember now!) that was peeled of course. 1-Place in dehydrator ( please do Not try this indoors, overwhelming powerful smell)   2- you want the pieces to snap hard with no bending. 3- Put into a spice grinder to make a powder. 
  In case you asked about roasting too, take whole bulb with skin, slice off the top.  Place on foil, drizzle olive oil over the top and roast till buttery soft.  Salt and pepper to your hearts content before or after roasting.  Another way to roast is throw peeled pieces on the same pan with your other favorite veggies, lightly oiled and your favorite spices and roast away! Garlic kinda flavors everything else, well maybe because I put a lot in there.

Thank LM  ..... everything now understood .
Dave

I'm pretty sure that I've asked you this before, LM, but what is the brand name and model number of the dehydrator you use please?

CC

German Red...hard necked...I know for a fact that I did not have a hardy garlic cultivar last fall. Will order some....thanks. I bought mine on a whim at the hardware store, yeah. I know. I like garlic.

CapeCoddess wrote:I'm pretty sure that I've asked you this before, LM, but what is the brand name and model number of the dehydrator you use please?

CC

Presto is the brand name and it was called Dehydro.  Model number 06006301.  Or very close to that number, anyway about 25 - 30 dollars. Found it at Walmart.

Scorpio Rising wrote:German Red...hard necked...I know for a fact that I did not have a hardy garlic cultivar last fall.  Will order some....thanks. I bought mine on a whim at the hardware store, yeah.  I know.  I like garlic.

Your Welcome.  I've bought things on a whim too.  Wanted more asparagus a couple years  back and in a hurry for more.  There they were at Menards! And they grew very well.

OK, thanks!

Scorpio Rising wrote:OK, thanks!

Your Welcome!

AtlantaMarie wrote:That's another variety I was thinking of trying...  How do they taste, LM?

Missed this question earlier.  When raw, hot and spicy.  Only need to use a little bit,  when roasted, extremely mild.  

Like to saute a little in a pan with butter to ramp up favor in a grill cheese sandwich. Then shove the cooked bits inside with the cheese. Homemade pickles on the side, my world is good for the entire day.

I decided to pull up one of my garlic plants. The bottom leaves have turned brown and now the top leaves are doing the same. I read that once the bottom three leaves have turned brown it's time to pull the garlic. I'm still not sure if my timing is right but I may just go ahead and pull the rest of them.

Gorgeous!  Wish my garlic had made it.  TD, did you grow your garlic in MM or the ground?

Scorpio Rising wrote:Gorgeous!  Wish my garlic had made it.  TD, did you grow your garlic in MM or the ground?

Thanks SR. I am growing the garlic in MM.  I only have about a dozen plants. This was an experiment since I have never grown it before. Maybe I will pull half of them now and leave the others until August. I can't wait to try some of my home grown organic garlic in a recipe.

Hey TD, nice looking garlic. I too have heard that when the bottom three leaves have turned brown to pull them. I did that in years past and have never been totally happy. This year, I am going to pull ONE when most are at the three brown leaf stage. Also, I am not going to water them heavily. I am going to let most of the rest age longer, and maybe a week later pick another one that has definitely gone to 4 or 5 brown leaves. When I do water it will be lightly. In years past I seem to pick to early, so this year I am going to purposefully wait and see how they come out.
A side note, I am at a higher altitude, and our weather tends to be not as sunny and warm, with winter weather lasting a little longer than most places in general around this part of New Hampster (New Hampshire) which means everything starts growing later and with cooler temps when they do start growing. I came from California, not far from Sanderson, and got used to starting very early and ending late, when out here starting early is Mid April, and late is when it snows in October. The upshot of this is that we have a shorter season, and when you mix that in with all the variables like drought, too much rain, different varieties of plants, etc., I need to take notes that notate these things and then take notes on how to deal with each kind of plant for the particular conditions of the year.

Here are a few pics the first one taken a week ago, and the second taken just now. You can see the difference, last week not a lot of brown leaves, this week has more. I have pulled one (by accident, while weeding) and it is not done, I almost put it back, but it went well on a sandwich and some spaghetti. I am going to pull another one later in the week, unless I make some spaghetti. These are not the greatest pics, but you can see the browning up on some of them.

Last week's pic



This morning's pic

Rock, you put the garlic on a sandwich???    Wow, you really DO love it.

I wait until there are only 3 green leaves left at the top and all the rest are brown.  This year for some reason they didn't all come ready at the same time as they have in the past.  So I've been harvesting it about 10 at a time (gave one of these away to neighbor).

The window for harvesting is short so we each have to get it right for our particular area.

CC

I don't want to miss the prime time window for harvesting. I'm concerned about that because we are going out of town again. Decisions, decisions.

I read somewhere that it's better to harvest them earlier rather than later.  Once they separate from the bulb while still in the ground, then....

...I don't remember the rest.  Sorry.  
 
They probably don't store as well or some such.
You could pull some before you leave and leave some in just to see what happens.
CC

I recall reading that if left too long in the ground the protective "paper" skin falls off and then they do not store well.  I didn't expect to be harvesting garlic until well into August but perhaps the hot weather this summer has changed the schedule.