Curing and storing hard-neck garlic

July 14, 2012 by Jennifer | 4 Comments

I harvested my garlic one week ago:

It was less than half my 2011 harvest. I simply planted less of it last fall, having had no plan and no time to come up with one. Last September-October was a crazy time at work for me (it settled down, thank goodness).

This is fun: I can now say, with confidence, that I know how much garlic is required to feed a family of 4 who really likes to cook with garlic. It is the precise amount that I planted in fall 2010 (~six 6-ft rows) and harvested in July 2011, one year ago. How do I know?  I had plenty on hand to plant for seed last October, gave some away as Christmas gifts, and had so much besides that it lasted until yesterday.

Last night we took the last handful of bulbs and roasted them in foil on the grill for a few minutes, then spread them on slices of baguette. A heavenly end to the 2011 garlic harvest.

Today I took the now-cured 2012 garlic harvest out of the garage and prepped it for long-term storage:

You know it’s ready when the tops have turned completely brown and the smell has diminished somewhat.

With a sharp scissors, cut the stem down to 3-4 inches. Cut off the roots, and brush the dry dirt off. Try to remove as few of the papery layers as possible. Cut yourself some longish lengths of string and tie each bulb to it as you finish cleaning it.

There you have it, our garlic harvest for 2012 (layed out neatly on the trampoline). The string on the top of the picture has all the damaged bulbs. We will use them first—they don’t last quite as long. At least half of each damaged bulb is definitely still usable, though. We hang them in a warm, dry place right in our kitchen, and we’ve now proven that they last a good year this way.

No doubt, this fall I will have to buy seed garlic, but that’s OK. 2012 is going to be the year of the crazy shallot harvest, you heard it here first. (I can’t wait!)

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