Garlic Harvest 2024

[IronNoggin]

Garlic harvested yesterday - a tad late but wanted the temps down below 30 C to do so.



Somewhat smaller sizes than I am used to. Guessing a reflection of the cool spring and summer until the last little while.



Now hanging to cure:



We'll eat about 1/2 of that lot, and the other half will get turned into a granulated garlic powder mix.

Cheers

[IronNoggin]

We used to hold back the best for the next crop's plating, but I always disliked putting my best back into the ground rather than eating them.

Around a decade ago now, I decided to explore other options. If you have the room and a little patience, you might want to consider this method.

The scapes eventually ripen into a bulbil packing sphere. I leave around a half dozen to do this each year now. These are this years still in the ground to finish ripening:



Eventually they will look like this and are close to harvest time:



I cure these in mesh bags, then hang for the winter in our cold room.



In the spring the individual bulbils get separated and planted into planters' boxes. They grow quickly over the summer:



These produce singular small clones - most will not be sectioned cloves, rather singular and about the size of a marble.
And these are what we plant that same fall:



Continued...

[IronNoggin]

That allows us to chow down on the best we produce, and we still get full sized bulbs from those plantings.



Win Win in my books.

Cheers

[Stone Sheep Steve]

Garlic-Nature’s best antibiotic and delicious!

Good on you Nog! Home grown is the best!


SSS

[IronNoggin]

Good on you Nog! Home grown is the best!

Thanks Steve!
It certainly is the best alright.
You will never find any as oily and spicy as the ones we grow in any store!
Love 'em!

Cheers

[j270wsm]

Are you growing Russian red garlic?

[IronNoggin]

Are you growing Russian red garlic?

It is a Hybrid developed specifically for the Island.
Based on a blend of Russian Red Hardneck and a similar variety produced by Gabriola John (famous garlic producer).

Although made for the Island, it has done very well everywhere I have sent samples to.
Including much of BC and some in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Truly Good Stuff!

Cheers

[j270wsm]

I prefer a bit of spice to my garlic

[IronNoggin]

The garlic scapes have formed their heads, ripened to the point of bursting, and are now ready for harvesting:







I'll be taking them down today and hanging them in mesh bags to cure.
Also will be harvesting the bulbs that produced them.

These will form the next planing of our seed stock, and become the main planting stock a year from October.

Cheers,
Nog