our homestead: I smell like garlic

Here's how close you can get to garlic without getting your eyes wet...err...dirty.

I've begun the garlic harvest. It was growing in a jungle of weeds this year and I just had to get it out of there. Bad Cat, very, very bad Cat, if you compare my current garlic bed to the photos of my garlic bed from last year: gorgeous, neat alfalfa mulched rows of well weeded splendor. Oh well, I still have a good crop of garlic  ( a wheelbarrow's worth) and any missed bulbs will just peek back up next year in the lawn. 

I've been peeling the first few outer layers of  my freshly picked garlic to prep it for sun curing. Curing refers to drying the outer skin layers of the garlic for better storage. Garlic doesn't have to be peeled to be cured, but I think it's a lot prettier without dried, caked on dirt and its easier to cook with later. 

To clean up my garlic, I'll usually grab the green tops of my outer layers or any yellowed leaves, and pull them down, around and off the bulb of the garlic if that makes any sense. It's an allium artform. It takes a long time, but I think it's worth it. Peeling garlic is kind of a zen activity...and then you smell like garlic for the rest of the day.

Before peeling the outer layers

After peeling