Goody Goody Garlic

Garlic harvesting time is upon us! SUFCo just harvested their garlic patch and they are looking mighty tasty hanging up in the shed. The right time for harvesting is a little bit ambiguous to many people as can be seen by a quick google search which results in a wide variety of techniques. Harvested too soon, they haven't grown to their full potential; too late and they don't seem to store as well. A great reference for garlic farmers is an unambiguous book called Growing Great Garlic, which I deem trustworthy- if the man can write a whole book on garlic, he must be pretty knowledgeable on the topic.

About a month ago, we started telling people to harvest their garlic scapes, which many people (myself included!) didn't know were edible. The scape is the thick green stalk in the middle of the garlic plant that grows up and curls with a white segment that would become the flower. Once they start to curl, they can be harvested. "Because of their substantial heft as opposed to garlic cloves, they are vegetable, aromatic, and even herb all in one,"says one writer who goes on to rave about garlic scape pesto and provides other ways of using the scapes, including grilling them or throwing them into a "double-garlic soup" (http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/06/the-crisper-whisperer-what-to-do-with-garlic-scapes-recipe.html). Here is one fast and favored recipe for garlic scape pesto. 

Definitely ready to harvest

Garlic scapes are just the preview to the real feast of flavor, but timing is key. The whole growing underground thing makes it rather more difficult to tell when garlic is ready as compared to say a squash that you can watch size up. It also depends on the variety, especially between soft- and hard-neck garlic which can be harvested a few days to a week apart. But according to the expert garlic growers, soft-neck  should be harvested when there are still 5 green leaves on (6 if it is a large harvest) that serve as protection during storage. The green leaves are important because they indicate sturdy protection as opposed to decaying or decayed wrappers for the garlic bulbs, and the number is important because some are lost sometime between harvesting, cleaning, and curing. For hard-neck (or "ophio") garlic, harvest time is even more critical because there is more potential for decay if left too long, and also the cloves are more likely to split or break, therefore needing more protection. For this, the expert says to harvest when there are six leaves left and the sixth leaf has browned at the tip. He mentions that other growers harvest "when plants are about 40% browned and 60% green" but also thinks it is better to harvest a little earlier rather than later. 

Harvested hard- and soft-neck garlic

If that isn't enough detail for you, there are quite a few books entirely devoted to garlic, some of which can be found here: http://www.filareefarm.com/book.html.