Garlic is In

Yesterday I finally finished getting all the garlic out of the garden. I could leave garlic in the ground and it would sprout again for next year’s crop but I don’t because I would be leaving a whole bulb of garlic and that produces a clump of plants and they’re hard to dig next year and also, next year’s garlic isn’t going to be planted where I planted it this year. 

After canning 11 half pints of roasted garlic, I made several braids. In the photo above, three braids are hanging together.

There’s a braid hanging above this little rack.

And yet another braid! I haven’t had great luck keeping garlic like this but since I had so much, I figured I’d try it one more time. All of the garlic that had good stems got braided. Last year the grasshoppers ate all the tops off the garlic before it was even mature and this year, I don’t think I had a single stem that was eaten by the grasshoppers. That’s great!

This is all that’s left. Some will go to friends. Some will be peeled and dehydrated . . all will be used!

This year, I planted Inchelium Red, Sciliano, and Red Toche garlic. I will probably plant the Inchelium Red and Red Toche again from garlic I’ll save from this year, in addition to new (to me) varieties which I ordered for next year:  Early Red Italian, Oregon Blue, Susanville and Transylvanian. 

Vince loves to roast the whole bulbs on the grill, then peel it and he spreads it on toast like butter. I’m not quite that big of a garlic fan but every time he eats this home grown garlic . . every year . . he says “I can’t believe how much different this is from store bought garlic!”  Some of you live where you probably can get fresh (or fresher) garlic than we’re able to get but what I grow is way different from what I’m able to buy here.

Even though this looks like a whole lot of garlic, we’ll be lucky if this garlic lasts through January or February, then we’ll be back to buying garlic at the store til our new crop is ready.