harvesting garlic

Last Summer I ordered garlic seed from the Maine Potato Lady company.

This was to be my first time planting garlic,

and as with planting anything new 

I was nervous!

The seeds of Inchelium Red Garlic

arrived last Fall. There were three garlic heads,

and I planted the cloves of all three

which turned out to be the hope of just over forty plants.

Not only was this a new plant to grow,

but it grows underground.

The gardener can't see what's going on!

Lately the plant's stems began to yellow.

I decided to research on the Chiot's Run blog

about garlic.

This gardening blog is wonderful for its daily gardening tips,

beautiful pictures, encouraging advice

and I knew I had read about harvesting garlic there in the past.

This blogger isn't a professional,

but a knowledgeable home gardener

which is what I'm trying to be.

What I mean is the advice of professionals can be heady and out of my league,

but her advice is practical and attainable.

So her advice was to watch the yellowing of the stems.

Just about five of these plants were left green,

so I decided to harvest them.

The reward all these months later is over forty beautiful heads of garlic!

I'm so pleased.

They are drying in the basement,

which now smells like a pizza shop,

and will stay there for 3-4 weeks.

After that I might try my hand at braiding some,

make garlic powder and garlic salt

and of course, make something with fresh garlic.