Using Herbs

Dry Garlic Harvest for Storage

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After harvesting the garlic plants from the garden, what’s next? Drying, of course, and prepping for storage.

The garlic plants were moved into the garage late in the day they were harvested to protect them from rain and the morning dew. We’re trying to dry out the plants so any moisture isn’t good at this stage.

Garlic plants were dug up and laid out on a sheet to dry in the shade for part of the day. By having the plants on a sheet it made it easy to transport them easily into the garage. The ends of the sheet were gathered into a big bundle for carrying and just as easily unfurled on the work bench in the garage. Sheets helped to contain the dirt and loose leaves, too.

The garlic was laid out in mostly a single layer to dry some more. The plants were adjusted here and there for a couple of weeks so that all plants would dry out.

After about two weeks time the outer leaves were stripped away and the tops cut back to 6-8 inches long. The plants were left to dry again.

About a week later another set of outer leaves were stripped from the bulbs so that a white outer layer remained and the dirt removed. Roots were trimmed with scissors and the tops or hard necks were trimmed down to 2-3 inches long. The bulbs were laid on planting trays for continued curing.

Do you think we have enough garlic to share? You bet!
Do you think we have enough garlic to share? You bet!

Any of the cloves that were exposed to the air were either taken into the kitchen to be used soon or poked into the garlic patch in the garden.

An improvement we could make for next year would be to selectively pull some of the small garlic plants that come up so that other bulbs would be able to grow larger. A more uniform harvest would be possible if each garlic plant had a little more room to grow. Any of the pulled sprouts could be cooked to our delight. Anyone for tasty broiled garlic sprouts?

We did harvest a few big bulbs of garlic, but most of the harvested garlic bulbs ranged in size from small to big.
We did harvest a few big bulbs of garlic, but most of the harvested garlic bulbs ranged in size from small to big.

Now, we’re looking forward to cooking with all that garlic!

Where Does Your Garlic Come From?

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Garlic is one of those kitchen staples that we can’t seem to do without. Rice stir-fries, steamed veggies, pasta, seafood, steaks, potatoes … all these dishes go better with garlic, don’t you think?

We grow garlic in our garden because we love to eat it, but I have a revelation for you. We also enjoy growing it because what is offered in the grocery stores now comes from China. Surprised? Probably not as so many other things we buy come from there.

I found Made in China labels on packaged garlic bulbs in the produce section and also on powered garlic in the spice aisle of my local grocery store. Knowing that California grows lots of garlic, I was quite surprised about this so I called McCormick, the spice company, to ask them about it.

The young-sounding customer service person did a fine job reading the canned responses to my simple questions, but he was stumped when I asked him why did they sell food products from China?

When pressed on this issue it was offered that a gourmet version of garlic powder (the one with the black lid and glass container) contained California-grown garlic. The garlic powders and garlic salts with the red lids were…Made in China! So, if you don’t want to eat garlic produced halfway round the world, you’ll have to buy the more expensive gourmet spices from McCormick.

Alternatively, get to a local vegetable stand and pick up some locally produced garlic. Ask the people there where does this food come from? We all should strive to know more about the foods we eat and where they come from. If we all consumed more food that is produced locally, more of our dollars would stay in our communities and not disappear to lands so far away.

Buying foods locally helps to reduce the burden of transportation on the Earth by reducing pollution and the use of fossil fuels, not to mention the impact on global warming. Local produce is the freshest one can get and that’s got to be healthier for us. Support your local farmers and buy fresh, local produce. ‘Tis the season!