Every day last week the boy was asking me when we were going to harvest our garlic. He had even taken to carrying some garlic around in his pocket as he wanted to plant it!
I didn't want to do it without him so waited until the weekend when we could dig it up together.
It's always a gamble knowing what you're going to pull up, but this year the bulbs were a great size and looked really healthy. Even the leaves weren't covered in their usual layer of rust!
We had three sorts in - a hard neck, a soft neck and some elephant garlic. A bed of each so took up a fair bit of growing area. I've no idea on what varieties the two normal garlics are as I've been planting them for a number of years now, they taste good and store well though so that's the main thing.
I'll leave these to dry off in the greenhouse for a bit (its not too hot this week) and then find somewhere better to store them. They smell incredible and it was all I could smell all day afterwards.
I managed to talk my helper down from planting them straight away and convince him that we could make some garlic bread instead and just wait a few months to plant out the best cloves.
Who else has had a good garlic harvest this year?
impressive garlic harvest. Congratulations on not having rust either, so that look really good.
ReplyDeleteI think there's a bit on it, but some years it's ruined the harvest!
Deletewow...great looking garlic. did you get scapes from your hard neck? our scape season is over and i really miss them. i made lots of scape butter and froze it so at least i have that. your garlic heads are big! just the way i like them!
ReplyDeleteYeah we only had one meal from the scrapes though even with all this lot. Love them steamed with a bit of butter.
DeleteGreat Harvest well done mine were poor this year, where did you get your initial bulbs from?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure now sorry, either Sutton or the garlic farm on the Isle of White.
DeleteVery impressive garlic heads Kev!
ReplyDeleteI was pleased. All this rain has been good for something!
DeleteI have high hopes, I might get a nice harvest this year. I just used last summet's last two cloves last weekend! Usually my garlic is consumed by March, but I'm learning how much I actually need. A lot, it seems!
ReplyDeleteYour plants look really healthy, did you get decent rainfall this summer (so far)? We are having hottest and driest summer ever.
Yeah, its been wet the last month or so, everything else has been slow to get going but the garlic has loved it.
DeleteGorgeous harvest! Mine were a bit smaller than usual this year, but the smaller cloves fit better in the garlic press, so it's good.
ReplyDeleteI will never buy garlic at the store again! It's one of the easiest crops to grow.
Enjoy the harvest!
Yeah, just so long as it breaks into good cloves. I laugh when a recipe calls for one - I'm like nope 3 will do!
DeleteIt's one the best crops to be self-sufficient in I think!