I planted garlic last October and am reaping the benefit of my labor now. It seems early for the garlic to be lodging, but this year has been drier than last year.

The ends are withering and the stalks are beginning to fall over. It's ripe!

Harvesting garlic is not very tricky, but there are some steps worth noting.

First, it's nice to not wait too long to harvest, as the bulbs will start to separate from the stems at some point. You can still get garlic out of the ground, but it's hard to find and won't save as long.

Rubbing the dirt off takes a little time, but is worth it.

When we first grew garlic, Michael would pluck it all and then do a massive washing with water. Our garlic would rot. Avoid letting your garlic (or onions) get wet after harvest. If you do it immediately, the dirt just rubs off. If you wait, it gets glued on and you have to peel off layers of the outer skin to get rid of the dirt. That same skin is what helps the garlic keep its moisture longer and not dry out as soon. If you are growing garlic, you are probably saving it as well. We are just finishing our last braid of Germinador, and it is still good! (It is also known for its ability to last...).

We don't have a good place to hang our garlic out of the sun and dry it. We set it out in the sun for a couple of days, turning it so any fungus gets some hard UV before I bundle or braid the garlic.

Different garlic strains do variously well depending on the weather. I planted 105 cloves of 5 different types. So far, I've had a low of 82 bulbs and a high of 105.

I like the stems to have dried somewhat but not entirely, which makes braiding/bundling easier.

Soft neck garlic can be braided/hard neck must be bundled.

We grow more garlic than we can eat, but that means a select few also get to enjoy our garlic.

I like to think this is Lilith dreaming of garlic.