Some folks know that I am addicted to the Twilight series of books. Â Basically, they are about a girl’s experience with a family of vampires, including one vampire named Edward who is incredibly handsome, smart, charming, etc…you know, all the stuff that guys typically aren’t. Â I read the books and saw the first movie. Â Edward is indeed a dreamy bugger. Â Fortunately, I am a married man and also have my secret weapon…Â
I planted just shy of one ton of garlic last fall.  It seems that most of it has done very well and will be ready for harvest later this summer.  Garlic is so fun to watch grow.  It starts in the fall and shows itself but then dies back over winter.  Early in the spring though, you will see it poking back up through the dirt and by late spring, it produces large, hardy onion-like leaves.  In a month or so, it shoots up scapes full of little garlic seeds (if you let it go that far.  The scapes are good to eat on their own).  It sort of looks prehistoric to me.  Anyhow, prior to growing our own, we never really used garlic much.  Once you try fresh garlic, though, you’ll never go back.  We use it in everything.  We can with it, we cook with it.  We even bake heads of garlic in olive oil to make a quick and easy spread for on bread (pour olive oil in between the cloves that you separate slightly, leaving them still mostly attached.  Bake at 350 until they are tender…maybe 30 minutes…serve the  cloves with bread.  Once baked, they are spreadable).
All this food talk is nice, but the most important thig about garlic is it’s effect on vampires. Â I wear garlic around my neck to ward off Edward Cullen and his ilk. Â As much as I like Edward, I am pretty sure that I prefer my human form and plan to stay that way! Â If you have a Twilight addiction like me, I recommend you plant some garlic this fall!
ok you’ve convinced me to give it another try… how do you store it? I’ve grown some before but it wants to rot before we use it all.
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What do you mean – garlic is your “secret weapon”? I thought you were going to say that your love for your wife was enough to ward off any temptations. You have some explaining to do tonight….
We pull/dig it out of the ground (carefully so you don’t knick the heads) and hang it up in the shed for 3-4 weeks to dry some. Then I trim the stalks (but don’t cut it too close…don’t get down into the cloves) and store them in onion sacks. Don’t wash the dirt off when you harvest. You can brush off the big stuff once it dries in the shed. They’ll be pretty clean actually. Never had rot problems if you let it dry some and keep water away from it (i.e. don’t wash)
Emily – HA! Uh…yeah, that’s what I really meant…the garlic is just to protect you from Edward…
When do you know it’s time to pluck the garlic from the earth?
Emily, I am sure Warren means to *explain* himself with a lovely, home cooked, garlicky dinner
Natalie – we pull/dig it when the green leaves really start to turn brown and fall over. You’ll recognize it when you see it. I guess it’s at the end of June or beginning of July for us in WV.
When do you plant garlic? I’d love to plant some this year – we use LOTS of garlic (helps keep away ear infections and lots of sickness). That looks like a lot of garlic – will it keep all winter long?
Kris
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Wow, that is a ridiculous amount of garlic!!!! Makes us look like we didn’t plant any! Oh yeah, we didn’t. So, is that a year’s worth or do you give some away or sell it?
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Kris – we plant at the end of October usually. I don’t know if you would do any good now. It can be planted int he spring but I don’t know about the details of that. It definitely keeps though…we’ve not had issues with it going bad.
Lynnie – you can’t even see all that we planted…but we’ll use every bit. See? no vampire problems!
You saw my few pathetic victims. I don’t think I could even keep garlic alive, but you have me intrigued now….
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I’m assuming your planting “close to one ton” is a slight exaggeration on your part…I don’t know why I think this, I just do. Thats a heck of a lotta garlic. I planted 7 different varieties myself last fall for the first time, and I already don’t know what I’m going to do with it all. What kind are you growing? I had read that it keeps (in a dry place) for “only” about six months, but it sounds like you’ve had luck keeping it longer?
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p.s. love that old guy and love his hat – he looks like he’d be fun at a party.
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Dang. Thats a whole lotta garlic. Did you grow any of the softneck variety? Are we going to see fancy braided works of art in your near future?
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No softneck here…looked for redneck but only found stiffneck which probably fits also!
We have music, metechi, and romanian red this year. As far as saving it…we harvested last years at the beginning of July and still have maybe 2 heads of last year’s garlic left. Never had a bit of rot with it. We dried it outside when we first harvested it and then it goes in my basement in an old onion bag so it can get air.
As far as what we do with it…it goes into salsa, pizza sauce, pickles, just about everything we cook. We save several of the best heads to plant the next season too. Don’t forget that part…
Oh yeah…ETW – garlic is nice because you plant it in October and then ignore it until you harvest. It’s great!
Warren you are hilarious! I too love Twilight and EDWARD!!!! But you don’t have to worry, you are a human and remember…he only sucks the blood from animals…
You have motivated me to grow garlic this fall!!!
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Awesome Mandie! Once you grow garlic, I bet you’ll be hooked!
So I don’t need to wear the garlic any more you think?
Well it looks like you could repel quite a few vampires
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I can smell that garlic field from here man. Looks great.
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Great post. I love the looks of garlic growing. I have yet to get the scapes thing and or eat them???? Only our 2nd yr growing it.
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tipper – it’s a hard choice to make!
Chris – I love it too! Thanks!
Kim – the coolest thing about scapes is the little seed pod at the top. It’s sort of freaky to me…like an alien pod here to take over my garden or something!
Nice lookin’ garlic! Wow, you really planted a lot! Mine are looking great as well, I can’t wait! I only planted one kind – German Extra Hardy.
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YD – we planted the German 2 years ago…can’t wait to hear how yours comes out!
My garlic bed is full of weeds. I have no idea if there is any garlic in there or not.
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