I am not sure what the restrictions would be. I will have a look when I return from the north.

ok

A couple of days ago I finally took the Reemay off my garlic patch -- and was happy to find that it had survived our rather extreme winter with flying colors, apparently not even one "miss." The row on the left is softneck garlic, the other two are hardneck. A little contrast to Ken's, which is already being harvested... kind of a reminder of how big a country we live in!

Sure is a difference in harvest time. How about that. I went ahead and finished digging up the rest of the hardnecks today. I now have about twice as much as was shown on the picture taken on the 11th. I feel that I am now safe from vampire attack. You can smell the "Everything Else" greenhouse (now the "Garlic" greenhouse) 30' away.

Sandy, I am from MI and I was up in the Traverse City area visiting my mother over Christmas so I know exactly what kind of a winter you had! Haven't had that much snow in years. Your garlic came through with flying colors.

Sometimes we visit the UP. We have five acres in Newberry. And of course, we visit the casinos! LOL!

I had 10 acres on Firetower Hill overlooking Houghton Lake. If you can grow garlic in the UP then I should be able to do it here for sure.

Where is the "UP", Mary Stella?

I think it's Upper Peninsula (of Michigan). Is that right, Mary Stella?

Yes Tee, that is correct. It is connected to the main part of Michigan by the Mackinac Bridge. It is or was the longest bridge of it's kind at one time. Can't remember what kind made it special. Just looked it up. It is one of the largest suspension bridges in the world.

drdawg said: I feel that I am now safe from vampire attack. You can smell the "Everything Else" greenhouse (now the "Garlic" greenhouse) 30' away.

LOL - I heard some similar comments about vampires around here last fall as I was running my dehydrator in the garage to dry garlic for garlic powder! Whew!!

Funny Sandi. A brief visit to my greenhouse will open those clogged-up sinuses as well as keep those pesky vampires at bay.

Sandi, I don't have a dehydrator and never even considered making garlic powder. We just pop a bulb out of the pantry, peel some cloves, and use it fresh. I might like to make some really fresh garlic powder and garlic salt. It is much trouble?

When will you start harvesting your hardneck? Do you harvest your softneck later? Have you tried to grow the "King" of the garlics, the Creole?

Ken, I use lots of fresh garlic too -- but sometimes just getting out the jar of garlic powder is SO much easier!!

The process is a little messy, but relatively simple. Peel the cloves (this is easier after it's been out of the ground for a while; or you can cut the top off the bulb and put whole bulbs in the dehydrator for a short time to kind of shrink the cloves and make the skins easier to get off). Then I use my food processor to slice the cloves (the slices come out pretty irregular this way, but that's okay), and spread them out on the dehydrator trays, preferably using mesh no-stick mats over the regular trays. Use a lower temp -- around 125 degrees F -- and stir things around a couple of times over the course of the drying process, which can take a couple of days. The time depends somewhat on how much garlic you're doing at one time. The slices should be dry enough to break when you try to bend them. One year I didn't let it go long enough and my garlic powder was pretty clumpy and annoying. I use a little electric coffee grinder -- I think it cost something like $15 -- to grind the dried slices into powder. Store in glass jars, not zip-lock baggies; trust me on this! Probably also not a good idea to use the grinder for coffee...

All of my garlic seems to be ready to harvest at about the same time, in early August -- if anything, the softneck (which I think I have Western Rose and Polish White, or something like that) seems a little earlier.

How do you clean your bulbs after harvesting, Ken? I usually spread mine out on screens to dry, then cut off the stalks and roots and brush most of the dirt off. Is it okay to wash the bulbs off when you dig them? My method is fine for my own purposes, but when I feel generous and give some away to friends and family I always notice that my bulbs are a little shabby looking on the outside!

As far as the creole garlic -- do you think there's any chance that I'd be able to grow it here? Well, what the heck -- I'll send you a tree mail and see if I can order some from you, I'm always willing to try pushing the climate boundaries in my garden! I think my plan would be to plant some in the fall and try to hold some over and plant early in the spring -- any thoughts about that?

There is no way I can tell you that the Creole will grow for you. I am in NE Mississippi, and I am not knowledgeable enough to know whether you would have success growing them up north. I would guess not - eat them! There is not a single thing with hardneck garlic. They just won't store as long. Creole garlics are in a class by themselves, so there is no use in comparing them with anything else.

When I dig my garlic up, I simply shake off all the dirt I can from the roots and bulbs before hanging them up to cure. That's it. When the bulbs have cured for two or so weeks, I will the remove the remaining soil with my fingers before cutting off the stems and then weighing them to bag. I never put water on them.

Thanks for the info about processing the garlic for drying.

Ken

Weedwhacker said:The process is a little messy, but relatively simple. Peel the cloves (this is easier after it's been out of the ground for a while; or you can cut the top off the bulb and put whole bulbs in the dehydrator for a short time to kind of shrink the cloves and make the skins easier to get off). Then I use my food processor to slice the cloves (the slices come out pretty irregular this way, but that's okay)

Thanks for the tutorial. If I want to share, I'll do it! But for my own household, I stop at the first food processor step and freeze it flat in a ziplock bag. Then I can break off a corner as needed. It doesn't stay in the freezer long enough to go stale!

Thanks, Ken -- that's pretty much the same way I clean my garlic off too; probably best not to get it wet at that point!

Crittergarden, that's a good suggestion -- I'm going to try freezing some of mine this year too. I think I've read ("somewhere") that you shouldn't freeze garlic, but it wouldn't be the first time I've done something I'm not supposed to

It would be the same for us, GREEN. We certainly would eat them before they began to go soft and/or lose their flavor. The problem for me is that I plan on putting back perhaps ten pounds of garlic this year. There will be twelve varieties. Preparing it all for the freezer would be quite the chore. Well, I wouldn't have to do all of it, since my hope is to have enough of my own garlic to plant in October. I always say that each year: "I will put back enough to eat and to plant". It never happens. We end up eating it until September, then see that there is no way we'll have enough to plant what I want to plant AND have enough to last until the next harvest. So I end up buying my "seed" garlic every September! But the harvest looks to be so good this year, I think I can do both. Thus my ten pound goal.

We have established a pecking-order for our garlic. By mid-June, I will have all the garlic bagged-up. I put all the garlic in brown-paper, sandwich size bags, 1/4-1/2 lb. per bag. Each bag will be labeled with the variety and whether it is hardneck, softneck, or Creole. My wife doesn't know one variety from the other, but she does know the three main categories. She knows to begin with the hardneck, and once that is all used up, she will go to the softneck, and finally, by mid to late winter, we'll begin using the Creole. She just opened up the last 1/4 lb. bag of Creole and we should use the last of it just about when I begin to bag up my hardneck. Creole, when properly stored, will remain firm and flavorful for an entire year.

Oh for you, dawg, the freezer would NOT be good!
It's just me here in the house and I HATE to be out of garlic!
So I freeze.

One should never be out of garlic, GREEN. That's why I put back so much. We use garlic in cooking, marinades, salads, etc. at least every other day. I have a feeling that my wife (a red-head and Irish) and I must have some Italian in our family tree.

I used to buy whole garlic bulbs at the supermarket.
For awhile, I used the minced garlic that comes in a jar.
Then I found "Stan's" in the "Strip District" (as in it's laid out in a long "strip" - nothing to do with strippers) that sells green cloves in BULK for cheap.
That's what I bring home to process and freeze.

SOMEDAY I will plant my own and dry it, but I have more pressing matters at this time.....

IF I used it raw, It would be more important to grow my own.

I mainly eat beans, peas, and lentils (because that's what disability checks and food stamps can afford) so I use a frozen rough tbs or two in the mix.