It didn't seem like the garlic harvest would be very good. Then I began pulling them up and found I had much more than I anticipated!
The garlic on the left is a hard neck garlic named Music. I love to grow some hard neck garlic to enjoy grilled garlic scapes in early summer.
Garlic scapes are the stalks that grow from the bulbs of hardneck garlic plants. If left unharvested, the scapes eventually bloom flowers when the garlic plant fully matures. I believe that it will affect your garlic bulb size if they're not snapped off. Plus they're too good to not to eat!
Toss them with some olive oil and salt. Throw them on the grill. Cook until they're fork tender. Delicious!
The garlic on the the right side is a soft neck garlic named Early Red Italian. I love the flavor and the bulb size of these fast growing plants.
Garlic is planted in the fall. I use some of the biggest and best bulbs from this year's crop for next year's harvest. I usually plant the pulled apart garlic bulb cloves in rich soil at around Columbus Day. I mulch them well and wait for spring growth. Sometimes the mulch needs to be pulled back a little bit to give them a hand.
Today I will cut off the garlic plant's green tops and put them on a mesh table top in the shade to cure for a couple of days. I then store them in the cool basement in a paper bag that has holes punched in it.
Last year's garlic lasted almost right up until this batch was ready.
Vampires Beware!
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