Mary's Garlic Harvest

Mary Crooks Garlic

Those of you who were there to view Mary's wonderful garden at Tuesday's monthly meeting saw that her garlic stand showed signs of getting ready to harvest.  Sure enough.  She dug them Wednesday and they look great.

Here are earlier blog posts on Growing Garlic, including one on braiding the softneck varieties, or bunching with the hardneck ones.  Last year's Allium harvest info here.

Starting the Curing Process

So how do you tell when it's time for harvest?  Here's the University of Minnesota on the subject:

Harvesting too early will result in small bulbs, and harvesting too late will result in cloves popping out of bulbs. Depending on variety and climate zone, garlic is normally harvested between late June and late July. One indication to start harvesting is when the lower leaves turn brown and when half or slightly more than half of the upper leaves remain green. Alternatively, you can pull a few bulbs and cut them in half; if the cloves fill the skins, then the bulbs are ready to harvest.

Mine still have a bit to go, but they're getting ready.