Pandemic Year Garlic

It was a good garlic harvest this year. All the heads looked solid and disease-free. I hit only one with the spade. The yield was 75 head, or enough for a year in the kitchen and to seed next year’s crop.

It took about two hours to dig it. The work went easily because I had weeded the plot. This is my third year growing garlic at home and experience pays with this crop.

I made the garlic rack last year out of simple materials. I use the sawhorses for something else during the year. The present challenge is to let it dry thoroughly, then cut the roots and leaves to make the heads look like what we buy in the store.

This variety has a long history on the farm where I work. The heads and cloves are large, and the flavor is what we want. Planted in October 2020 and harvested yesterday, garlic spends to most time in the ground of anything I grow. In the pandemic year of 2020-2021, it did well.