140 pounds of garlic harvested!  Now the squash, which is towering above four-feet tall, has room to breathe.

This is the deal with harvesting homegrown garlic:

The most important thing you need to know about harvesting fresh garlic is: Eat it! Fresh garlic is fantastic and is a real treat to your taste buds, which are used to dried and old garlic. Fresh garlic tastes less strong than what you are used to, but has more zip. Eat as much as you can while it is fresh and cure the rest for storage. If cured correctly, it should last about 6 – 8 months.

• Garlic is ready to harvest when the bottom 2-3 leaves are brown (that is usually mid-July here in the north woods). The tips of the garlic will also be brown. About 2/3 will still be green, but the garlic will look tired and ready to move on to its next incarnation.
• Loosen the soil with a pitch fork or shovel so you can easily pull the garlic out of the dirt.  Don’t just yank the garlic out of the ground. Shake off the loose dirt.
• Cure the garlic for storage. You’ve got to properly dry the garlic if you want it to last, otherwise it will rot and you will be bummed. The main rules for curing garlic is keep it out of the sunshine and keep it dry, where there is good airflow.
• We cure our garlic on plywood in the garage. You can hang it up on a line in your house. Just be sure keep it where it will be dry and out of the sun. Don’t put the garlic directly on concrete, the moisture will cause the garlic to rot. Don’t put it on newspaper, that collects moisture.
• Cure the garlic for about three weeks, until there is no green left. The skin will be papery.
• Then you need to clean and process the garlic. Wipe off excess dirt (stray dirt might cause rotting). Cut the stem about an inch from the bulb, trim the roots to the edge of the bulb, but be careful not to cut too close to the bulb. It will look all pretty and clean.
• Store your cured garlic in a mesh bag or somewhere where it is dark and dry. Enjoy!

P.S. We have ORGANIC seed garlic for sale. We also sell the stuff to eat and it is fantastic. If you have the space, I highly recommend you try growing garlic. It is easy and rewarding and you will never taste anything like home grown garlic. Drop me an email if you want to order some garlic, for seed or as a gift or to eat yourself. I’ll put you on this list for shipping when the garlic is completely cured.