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?
