Category: Harvest

Preparing Garlic for Storage

Sabine2 Replies
Cleaned softneck garlic and strawflowers

This morning, I cleaned my garlic and prepared it for storage. As usual, I made a braid from the Transylvania softneck garlic, but this time, I added strawflowers for decoration.

All braided!

It is my first time growing strawflowers in my garden plot, and I am growing them specifically for this purpose. They just started to bloom, so there will be many more flowers in the next weeks and months. I suspect the final garlic braid will look much more colorful than this first version as I will be adding more flowers.

Left to right: Final braid hanging in the pantry, just braided frontal view, back view

I also cleaned the Red Russian hardneck garlic. I will leave the stems a bit longer for another couple of weeks before I cut them short. I just want to be sure they are completely dry. Those will then be stored in an open crock in the pantry and will be used up first as they do not keep as well as the softneck garlic. As usual, I saved the largest heads as seed garlic for fall planting – two heads for each type.

Hardneck garlic after cleaning

Overall, I put 2 lbs. 3 oz. of softneck garlic (17 heads) and 1 lb. 15 oz. of hardneck garlic (15 heads) into storage. One of the hardnecks may have been a softneck, but to be sure, I placed it with the hardnecks to be used up first. 36 heads were harvested overall, from 35 planted.

My German garlic storage crock
Hardneck clove. So flavorful and “juicy”. This is what happens when you selectively plant the largest cloves each fall – my garlic is getting bigger every year.

Pesto Time

Sabine2 Replies

Made my first batch of “pesto” yesterday. I forgot to take pictures of the actual product (which is just basil, olive oil and salt for more versatility). I pureed everything and scooped it into an ice cube tray and covered it with more olive oil. This morning, I moved the frozen cubes to a ziplock bag. There will be several more batches, and I will make one that is an actual pesto with garlic, nuts (likely sunflower seeds), and cheese. Nothing better than to pull a couple of cubes from the freezer in the middle of winter to add to pasta or use as pizza base, focaccia topping or over chicken or fish.

Garlic Harvest 2025

Sabine1 Reply
From left to right: hardnecks, shallots, softnecks

Today, I harvested my garlic. A little later than in previous years, but it had just not been ready for harvest a week or so ago. I harvested 16 hardnecks (Red Russian) and 20 softnecks (Transylvania). I had originally planted 15 and 20, respectively, but one of the hardnecks split and produced two heads.

Garlic drying on the porch

I will air-dry them on the porch (away from the sun) for a couple of days and then hang them in my back hallway to cure until the leaves are completely dry and the hardneck stalks very firm. This typically takes about two weeks for the softnecks and three weeks for the hardnecks. I will then clean them, remove all dirt and the very outer papery layer, trim the stalks of the hardnecks and braid the softnecks. But not before I put the largest heads aside as seed garlic for the fall.

Nicely sized Transylvania softneck

I also planted shallots this spring, but only three of the many I planted grew. Not sure what went wrong.

Shallot harvest 2025 🙁
Hardnecks to the left of the string, softnecks on the right
DYI shade rig. Umbrellas weighed down by gardening tools 🙂

Garlic Scape Powder

Sabine1 Reply
The final product

Last week, my daughter brought tons of garlic scapes back from work and made two cups of pesto – one for the freezer and one that we have been using up all week. There were still quite a few scapes left (around 20), and I decided to turn them into garlic scape powder. I have never done this before, so it was an exciting new project.

First, I washed and dried the scapes. I then cut off the flower buds and chopped the stems into 1 cm long (about 1/2 inch) pieces. I placed them in a single layer on a baking sheet and dried them in the oven at 150F. I checked every 45 minutes to an hour and turned them. After quite some time (4 hours and 45 minutes, the last 45 minutes at 170F), they were completely dry and brittle. I then let them cool and blitzed them in a mini food processor. Those 20 scapes yielded around 3 tablespoons. Not a whole lot, but it smells divine, so I think it is very potent.

Before oven-drying …
… and after

Lettuce

Sabine2 Replies

I harvested all four heads of my Black Seeded Simpson as they started to show early signs of bolting. I still have four other lettuce types growing: Salanova Green Butter, Merlot, Johnny’s Allstar Gourmet Lettuce Mix, and Sandy Hill Preservation Center lettuce mix. Salad for dinner tonight!

Garlic Scapes Season

Sabine2 Replies

I harvested my garlic scapes today. 15 total, from just as many hardnecks as I had put in the ground in the fall (I have 20 softnecks as well, so 35 heads total). I made garlic scape pesto, but this time, I followed the recipe to the end and included cheese and lemon juice, which I normally omit and add later. It is really delicious. We shall see how well it freezes.

Mise-en-place
To be topped with olive oil and ready for the freezer. I will transfer the frozen cubes into a Ziplock bag.

Porch Lettuce

Sabine1 Reply

This morning, I harvested the last of my porch lettuce. Temperatures will be in the upper 80s today (and low 90s tomorrow), so I did not want these to bolt. I sadly did not take a picture of the lettuce container before the harvest (it was very pretty), but I immediately planted it with Thai Pepper, Thai basil and nasturtium (those came up in the pot from last year and just moved them). Looks like we are switching from spring to summer …