Northern Hemisphere Garlic Ranchers/2025 Crop

[bower]

I did try curing some garlic in a warmer dryer porch one year. They dried faster, but IMO didn't keep as long. So now I just stick to the basement where it's cooler and a bit humid, and let them cure more slowly.
Just guessing that in a humid environment, a warm initial drying may kill off some mold? Could be a benefit to some, not for me.

[GoDawgs]

We've had humidity in the 90's during this rainy stretch we've been having. Temps have been in the low 70's and it's been cloudy so the shed hasn't gotten warm yet. Yay! Today will be really windy as a front comes through with clear skies to follow and temps in the mid 80''s so the shed will start warming up. An open window with that fan going 24/7 should help.

When the garlic is cured it will hang in an indoor closet with louvered doors. Temp should be a pretty constant 77. That's the best I can do as there's no cellar here.

@greenthumbomaha, that's a good question about curing. I just checked "why should garlic be cured" on a bunch of sites online. Couldn't find any Extension info. Garlic can certainly be used fresh but it seems that the main reason for the curing process is to drive out any excess moisture that might cause mold or mildew during storage. Other reasons include "enhancing flavor" (mellowing the fresh potency). Opinions on curing time seem to range from 10-14 days to 3-4 weeks. It seems to depend on your own environmental conditions. I'd be interested in hearing if anyone found out anything more about this.

[CtGrower]

I'll have to remember about the chop and freeze thing! I slice some into thin chips, dehydrate them and keep in the freezer for whizzing up garlic powder when my jar runs out. Homemade is so much better than store bought! The only drawback is that I have to keep that jar of powder in the freezer since there's no additive in it to keep it from clumping. Oh well, it's still worth it.

Nice gadgets! I do not have either of these, but I do have a regular mandolin that might work but it would be tough not to slice fingers! I don't use a lot of garlic powder in my cooking right now anyway. What do you use your garlic powder on? What comes to mind for me is in rubs.

[JayneR13]

Rubs, soups, recipes where it's preferable to have the powder mixing throughout rather than chunks here & there. I'm not a big powder person either but it does have its uses!

[CtGrower]

@greenthumbomaha @bower @GoDawgs
I'm not sure why it would matter whether curing in was cool or warm conditions either. Barbara Pleasant's article on garlic mentioned that the 'During this time the plants will be quite aromatic, which some family members may find unpleasant, an opinion shared by mosquitoes.' This might keep folks from bringing the curing process inside.

It seems that dryness might be a more important consideration. I also have seen it mentioned to not cure in direct sunlight. I don't know exactly why sunlight would be bad during curing. I personally just tie up the bulbs and hang them in my garage until the leaves are dry. Usually many weeks or more when I remember that they are there.

[TomNJ]

The initial curing is just to dry the foliage. You don't want to cut off the greens while there is still moisture in the neck as this can lead to mold in the bulbs, although some people cut off some of the leaves and leave 6-9" of stem. While the garlic can tolerate heat during curing, it does not have to be especially hot, but warmth and air flow will speed up the drying. The bulbs also dry down a bit during curing which concentrates the flavor and improves storage. Not sure if it changes the taste as I don't eat garlic raw.

[bower]

I think fresh bulbs are just juicier, the intensity is a bit watered down?
Uncured bulbs are so juicy and moist, they are subject to mold developing on or between wrappers. Even though it's antifungal! So curing makes the wrappers dry and tighten and better for storage.
Another reason for curing, is that the bulbs are easily bruised when fresh. So I think for purpose of commerce, handling becomes easier too.
I've heard the 'not in sunlight' as well, but I've forgotten why.

I have to admit, I love the smell. Favorite thing to bring indoors, the curing time is sweet. Stripping to a clean wrapper is also a smelly intensive process, and I... I like it.

[bower]

@CtGrower I don't use as much garlic powder either, but it's worth the experience to dry some home grown - flavor is just so, so amazing. It is a hassle to dry garlic, I'm usually too lazy to make powder unless there's a reason I can't store the whole bulbs. Really tiny cloves from scrawny bulbs can be dried whole without slicing, but I peeled them so, that alone was too much labor.

I would love to have a little garlic slicer like the one GoDawgs has, that might be game changer for powder makin motivation.

[bower]

WRT hanging bulbs with greens and roots still on, another grower in my region gave a talk once, where he pointed out that the bulbs actually got bigger, they continued to grow some while hanging. Can't be positive but I thought I saw some increase in mine.
It's as if the garlic is having its last moment of stocking up while going into dormancy as it would be in nature: taking the last bit of goodness from the leaves into storage for the winter.

[GoDawgs]

I am an admitted garlicholic and will put it on most anything. Fresh garlic in stews, chili, sauces, on top of homemade pizza just before it hits the oven, sauteed in butter and cooked pasta added to that skillet along with some kosher salt, etc. Powdered sprinkled on top of tossed salads and the hardboiled egg halves that have a film of mayo on them (breakfast!) and a host of other stuff. No vampires around here, by golly.

[CtGrower]

I am an admitted garlicholic and will put it on most anything. Fresh garlic in stews, chili, sauces, on top of homemade pizza just before it hits the oven, sauteed in butter and cooked pasta added to that skillet along with some kosher salt, etc. Powdered sprinkled on top of tossed salads and the hardboiled egg halves that have a film of mayo on them (breakfast!) and a host of other stuff. No vampires around here, by golly.

Our family loves garllic as well. One of the favorites is roasted garlic on slices of toasted baguettes. We also liberally use roasted garlic on our homemade pizza. (Making Pizza is a Xmas eve tradition now)

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

WRT hanging bulbs with greens and roots still on, another grower in my region gave a talk once, where he pointed out that the bulbs actually got bigger, they continued to grow some while hanging. Can't be positive but I thought I saw some increase in mine.
It's as if the garlic is having its last moment of stocking up while going into dormancy as it would be in nature: taking the last bit of goodness from the leaves into storage for the winter.

Allowing bulbs continuing to draw nourishment from their greens seems logical, and I'm open to suggestions that this would be a reason to leave the stalks intact longer. Recently, I've trimmed mine early on for really no other reason than just to get it over with and their taking up less room.

The Gotch

[CtGrower]

What method of taking the skin off of the cloves do you find the best? I had about 20 heads to process when the stored garlic started to sprout this winter. I've tried shaking the cloves in a container, rolling in a plastic tube, cutting the end and hitting with the side of a knife and pouring boiling water on them for a minute or two. I found the last method the easiest.

I then process in the food processor and freeze on a single layer between plastic with rough lines to make breaking pieces off easier when needed.

[TomNJ]

What method of taking the skin off of the cloves do you find the best? I had about 20 heads to process when the stored garlic started to sprout this winter. I've tried shaking the cloves in a container, rolling in a plastic tube, cutting the end and hitting with the side of a knife and pouring boiling water on them for a minute or two. I found the last method the easiest.

I slice off the the basal plate (root) end of the cloves, place 20-30 cloves at a time in a large metal bowl, then invert another similar sized metal bowl over it and shake like the dickens for about 20-30 seconds. This typically knocks off 90+% of the skins from well cured hard neck garlic. It works very well, but is not as effective on tight skinned Artichoke or Silverskin varieties or bulbs that are not fully cured.

[JayneR13]

My garlic is coming along! I gave them a nice dose of chicken poo yesterday and Mother is giving them some nice rain today. While the harvest won't be all I'd hoped for, it won't be bad either! The Krasnodar white most notably is one I won't plant again since less than half came up in spring. The Krasnodar red has done much better! The Metechi was hard hit by whatever dug it up though. Sigh. The Nootka rose and Silverwhite didn't do that well either but at least I'll have some! Only the Northern white in the middle row has done well.

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[bower]

Last year I dug up the 'out of rotation' garlic beds in spring when cool and wet, and killed a bunch of wireworms. Not seeing any misses this year. Overall the number of missed garlics has been greatly reduced over the seasons of improving the soil and especially hounding the wireworm.
We are well ahead of normal I believe, for garlic. What a strange year. We had so little snow, things were up early. Then April and May proceeded to be as cold as if we were snowed under, with frost after frost. Even rhubarb is late, lovage also, but crocuses and garlic were early up and the garlic has really boomed since the weather switched from 40's highs to 80's highs. I think we'll be having an early crop. I think I let it go too late to give them extra fertilizer, but I might be able to strip off what bits of mulch remain and give them an inch of nice compost, since I got a truckload delivered.

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[CtGrower]

Here is a picture of my garlic at home. It seems to like it next to our chimney. It is very tall (and leaning) and I just harvested a bunch of scapes. I have not fertilized, but use a thick layer of chopped up leaves over the bed every fall. Cross fingers that the chipmunks and voles have not disturbed the bulbs much!
I have been planting the biggest cloves of my CSA garlic for about 5 years now. I'm up to about 100 bulbs now. The variety is some kind of German hardback which works well here in Ct.

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