Can you stand another garlic post?? This will be the final post on my garlic stories! But I wanted to show you all how we decided to dry the garlic harvest. A few days ago I dug up all the garlic from the greenhouse - about 70 heads. Supposedly garlic needs to "cure" for several weeks in a cool, dry spot, out of the direct sunlight. We have a walk-out basement that is cool and dry and has good air flow. So that's the perfect spot for drying, at least in my situation! All the experts say that garlic must be cured with the roots and stalks intact until perfectly dry. The garlic head itself doesn't dry out because it is protected by all the layers of 'skin' on the garlic head. So Harold rigged up for me a hanging rack like this:
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| Two long boards (1 by 2's) are held together at the ends with cross pieces. Before the last end piece was put on, I threaded the garlic heads upside down into the slot. The whole thing is suspended from the ceiling rafters. (our basement is unfinished) |
Here's another view:
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| There were about a dozen or more heads that I couldn't fit on the rack, so they will have to just be laid out on a tray to dry. |
The last couple days, the whole house smells like garlic - not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing??? When the garlic heads are ready, I will save about a dozen heads for replanting for next year, I will sell some at our farm market stand, and I will try my hand at braiding some into fancy garland shapes for the kitchen to use this winter. Of course, next year, I will have to try other varieties of garlic and plant even more than 70 plants!! One must always do things "bigger and better next time", right??
2 comments:
I have a question. The rafters in the ceiling come to a peak.
Is this your basement or attic?
One good thing about the smell of garlic, it will keep the vampires away.
This is the basement. These are trusses that are 2 ft high and span 31 feet. We have an open basement without floor joists.
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