For those who don't have a dehydrator, we dice up the garlic finely and put it in a jar and freeze it and scrap off what we need from the top (or put it into multiple small pots and defrost and use). We also do the same with chilli.
in Romania, at the country side, they braid the dried stalks together and hang them somewhere with a lot of airflow. instead of cutting them... they do the same with onions too.. that is really cool way to store them😀
I braided my garlic this year, but it has to be soft neck. To string onions requires a 4 cord set up to get the right spacing for storage. I hang the garlic in my kitchen and break off when needed.
@@riffedwood5597 I just bought one (excallibur basic) and its HUGE. I also have the round type I got at local store (around $40) but they dont work very well. I LOVE having the real deal, ive dried peas, carrots, cherries, apples, onions, and about to try peppers and tomatoes...looking for more to dehydrate. Food retains up to 80% of nutrients vs 30-50% retained freezing. great to add to soup in winter.
Me: grows chillies Epic gardening: How to make a salsa garden Me: buys strawberry seeds Epic gardening: How to grown strawberry Me: plants corn seeds Epic gardening: How to grow corn Me: plants garlic Epic gardening : *garlic video*
Kevin, you sweet sweet angel. You are literally the reason why i will finish my gardeners courses and get my papers this fall. Our teacher sucks a lot and bc i started 6 months ago as a clean slate, i have A LOT to learn. You make everything so easily understandable and clear. I feel like im wasting so much time in school and the only time i really learn is with your videos. Doing the gods work! :D Thank you so so much! I really appreciate all you do!
This year I tried something different with my garlic bed. I let the scapes develop into flowering heads, and drop the seeds back into the bed, and harvested the bulbs. The bulbs were smaller then if I had removed the scapes, but still plenty big for use. I am wanting to see if the scapes will reseed it self into garlic bulbs as the parent plant. I will replant some of the bulbs this fall also.
Kevin, I wouldn't call it an interesting technique, it's what nature does and sometimes it's easier to leave it alone. I took a spring onion end from the kitchen (green onion? Scallion?) and planted it in some space a couple years ago. It grew. It flowered. It reseeded. They grew. By not rushing it, I now have a patch of spring onions. All from 3mm (1/8th inch?) of a single kitchen scrap 😉 The bees also love the allium flowers, so it's win win all around.
The seeded garlic might look different. After 1 year they normally look more like an onion, but that's ok. You can eat them anyway. When you leave some in they will develop the typical bulb in the second year. 😉
@@georgeprout42 It's an "interesting technique" because most typical gardening techniques are optimizing for yield size or frequency of yield. Of course this is what nature does, but that doesn't mean you get as much garlic or as often, though if that's not your primary concern then it may work for you. So yeah, it's definitely easier, but you won't get as much of a harvest. It's a trade-off.
I love that you’re dehydrating your harvest!! I feel like many of us gardeners sometimes don’t know what to do with an overly abundant harvest. I started dehydrating last year but need to be more consistent with it.
I totally agree! I grew 3 basil plants this year thinking I would keep up with the production and just use it fresh... by may... i had so much basil i didn't know what to do with it all and already have enough for 6 months in my freezer! lol
I dehydrated so much it gets bulky I started making powder of all sorts like a mixed vegetable powder is amazing as a soup base or to flavor almost anything.
LOL..........I have harvested 152 garlic plants that are all almost double the bulb size. My neigbour has over 600 bulb and are on avg. 110% bigger than mine. We live in a city suburb and are so far north I can throw a rock at Santa house.
I dry mine at 95F to keep better flavor, even if it takes a little more time. BTW - after grinding, a little arrowroot powder can help stock clumping during storage. There's a difference between desiccant packs which control moisture, and O2 absorbers - you need desiccant packs for your use.
I live in garlic country north of Gilroy CA and they just dig up the garlic in the fields and leave them piled up in the rows to cure for about 2 weeks. They also have to post armed guards now to keep the "Garlic Rustlers" from stealing out of the fields! Sure smells garlicy around here in July-Sept.
Great garlic. I have grown softneck many times, usually from store bought organic garlic. Sometimes I will harvest it while it is still “green”, often called Mexican garlic bulbs in the groceries stores. That garlic is very mild and can be used just as you would green onions - great in salsas! BTW: You can save the garlic “chips” as they are instead of making garlic powder. Just put in a morter and pestal and gring them as you need them. You can also roughly chop them and use them as a garnish, in soups and stews or make your own “everything bagel” seasoning!
I dehydrate using lowest temperature possible bc heat changes the flavour. I used to spread garlic on a baking tray set in front of a room dehydrator. I grind with a cheap coffee grinder and sift it over canning funnel into jar. The coarse pieces either go back into the grinder or stored as granulated garlic. I reuse the silica packs from sushi nori to keep my garlic powder from clumping. For replanting, use your biggest best cloves for the largest bulbs. You never need to buy seed garlic again except to keep collecting more varieties. I'm guilty of growing 12 hardneck varieties.
Shoes use dessicants to absorb water. Oxygen absorbers do oxygen. Also if they're left in the open air for 60 minutes, they are completely depleted. Ideally you want them within 3 minutes.
He caught me by surprise saying that. I've still got some of last years hardneck garlic hanging up that I never got around to planting this year - it still looks perfectly good to eat.
This was extremely helpful! I know now to plant them a lot deeper and mulch them over. And thanks for showing a way to process them after they've been harvested.
I also live in southern california and look forward to growing both potatoes and garlic for the first time this year. Your videos are so helpful and detailed!! Thank you for everything you do and sharing your knowledge.
Great to see successful garlic growing in a hot country, I come from the UK and growing garlic I took for granted. Now I live in Perth in Australia I was unsuccessful. Now I know your experiment has worked I will certainly be giving it another go. FYI the dehydrator is epic!
I'm a gardener in Oceanside and new to your channel. Just like you, I'm constantly experimenting with plants. This year I've decided to go against the odds and plant grocery storeg garlic. I'm determined to ammend the soil properly and feed regularly. I put my garlic in refrigerator for about a week. After that I planted approximately 400 large cloves. I shall see.
What a wonderful vid. Thank you. You are absolutely right about the scapes. Harvest and use them. As a result, the bulbs will be larger. Here in Ottawa Ontario, hard neck stores longer than soft neck; 10 - 11 months in a dark cupboard at room temp. is not unusual. We harvest when the bottom 3 - 4 leaves have browned and shriveled. Keep well, and safe.
I live in Northern Ontario and planted my garlic last fall. When the snow melted, the garlic had already started to sprout. I should be ready to harvest in about 4 weeks. First time growing garlic. Thanks for the info on making garlic powder.
G'day mate. Epic video as always. Oh man, those scapes. I just love them in a stir fry or using them to make a pesto. Yum! So much info in this video once harvesting time comes. Good on you mate. All the best, Daz,
Man! If I lived just two hours closer I would volunteer to come work in your homestead for free just to learn from you in person. Please keep up the great content!!!
I LOVE making garlic powder but this is my first year growing a bunch of garlic and I wasn't sure about harvest or cure time. Thank you SO MUCH for this video. Most useful. Happy Growing. Cheers, Ivy.
Something I did this year with my garlic harvesting and I loved it! I grow Music, so a hard neck. I dig my fork around the perimeter of the bed and lift like broad forking. I get to stand up this way and the deeper bulbs just lift right out. Not to mention the bed is nearly perfect for planting the next crop. It worked beautifully. I used this method on my leaks too. we have heavy red clay around here. Being able to lift ANYTHING right out of the ground is nothing short of meraculous.
I'm harvesing a thousand plants, most likely this weekend. I raised the seed for this crop, keeping the same four varieties of hardneck organized. I have watched videos prior to all previous harvests (5). This video is the best, most complete one I have watched about how to harvest. Nice going!
Just found Epic Gardening this morning! Best explanation of how to grow garlic --great for a beginner/new gardener which I am. The information on the "cold" requirements (never heard from others) is great as I live in a high desert area. I watched several other videos but this one (all 3 parts) was so easy to understand and logical. Thank you!
So awesome 🤩. I’m planting my garlic from last year’s harvest this month. They were very small. I didn’t fertilize, or compost them enough. They were still delicious. Thanks for making this series. I will continue to watch it again as my garlic grows.
Thanks for the tips and visual cues of what to look for. I planted 3 garlic bulbs that grew a little in my fridge. It’s my 2nd attempt. Finally 2 out of the 3 have stems growing of about 2”. Now I know from your video I’ve got a long way to go before I can harvest them! Thanks Kevin
Homemade garlic powder is the best! It retains the zing of fresh garlic and is so much more tasty than store bought. Once you try it, you'll never want to use store bought again!
I just yanked mine out of the ground yesterday! Zone 6a - I've done absolutely NOTHING other than plant it last fall and cover it in deep mulch, then wait (the hardest part). When the seed pods started to look like they were making actual seeds and getting ready to spread, I pulled! this is my first round of garlic, I'm SO excited!
I absolutely love this channel! I have done everything wrong with garlic and thought it was just too hard to grow. I will definitely try these tips and tricks, especially soaking in the baking soda solution! Also, I had no idea how very long the growing season is, and I probably gave up too early! Thank you, Kevin!
Per best garlic grower in country, cut scapes when it loops into P shape, then only cut to point of upper leaves, not down to base. Once bottom leaves, 40% of all leaves brown, shut off watering and allow to dry for 1-2,weeks, then pull.
In Lithuania we grow only hard neck garlic. We are planting it out end of October, in winter months the ground freezes (temperature drops to minus 20 fahrenheit), harvesting in the summer(July, August). It stores well until March, April. The rest we just freeze.
Make some alternative cheaper black garlic by soaking them in soy sauce for a month, after that month you'll end up with garlic infused soy sauce and soy sauce infuse garlic gloves. Lightly dry your garlic cloves and store them in a glas jar with soy sauce and keep the jar in the fridge for good storage.
Yay for garlic! Harvesting mine Thursday. We had a lot of rain last night so letting it dry a bit. Bottom 3 leaves are dried and withered, 4th is starting to dry. 4 varieties, Majestic, Great Northern, Susan Delafield and Red Rezan. 210 (207 now as I pulled 3 test cloves and ate them) cloves await!
I just harvested my first-ever garlic crop. I had procrastinated planting it so it wasn't in the raised bed until December 28, 2020. So far, I harvested the soft neck - Early Italian Red. Unfortunately, I did this right before finding this video, so I already cut off the top half of the leaves and all the roots. Then I tied them together and hung them outside under an awning to dry. Hope they'll come out OK. One mistake I made was letting water onto them after their leaves were brown and they were fallen over. Would have been better to let them stay completely dry in the ground. The heads are a bit small, likely due to how late I planted them? But they're very tasty! I had no pest troubles. Nothing seemed to want garlic - just like nothing wants all the onions. I love alliums.
For an even grind I would recommend getting a conical burr coffee grinder for your dehydrated spices. Much more consistent on the grind size, and the grinding process of conical burr generates much less heat than the blades of a traditional spice grinder (better for the spices)
Hardnecks will store for up to 12 months if they're really well cured and stored. I generally only grow hardnecks in our cold climate and mine is harvested in our late spring/early summer (Nov/Dec). It lasts almost until I harvest my next lot the following year. I usually run out just before my new lot is ready.
Congrats on your harvest Kevin! Man, I LOVE scapes, they last ages in the fridge and we eat them in everything, yummo! Only 4 or so more months until I can harvest mine here in Australia 😊 And great work on the garlic powder 😍
Amazing work! Thanks for sharing all this knowledge with us! I just got garlic who start making leaf in my basket, so I wanted to plant him, and thanks to you, now I have a lot of info on how to do it! :D Thanks a lot! And awesome work!
Nice. We grew garlic for the first time, curing now. I never thought of making garlic powder, I'm doing that for sure. Cultivated to a ripe blue color. Take care, kind sir.
I'm in zone 6b and I to grow a hardneck variety called paradise red. Very big , nice bulbs. I plant in early fall and harvest in late summer. I plant sixteen pounds of cloves each year. I don't wash them and just let them dry for a couple of months. I trim them when the temps get cooler and they store well in a brown paper bag in a cool dark place. They stay good a year or more but I use garlic almost daily so rarely do I have them for a year
I run the elephant garlic scapes threw the juicer, then use that for cooking... stored forever in the fridge due to nothing actually liking it. I also have played with juicing the garlic cloves as well and didn't notice any change to the flavor of dehydrating the pulp that was left over.
Might try doing some Black Garlic on your next harvest. I did a batch and it might be my favorite thing. The flavor is so unique, its like a sweet tart garlic flavor with the consistency of tar. I am sure you can do a lot with it, I find crushing it in a mortar and pestle with some good olive oil and using it as a dip is one of the best things. You can add some fresh basil and or some crushed red pepper as well. *Chefs kiss* fantastic.
Great stuff, and nice harvest, Kevin! 👍 I do the same thing with my smaller onions that I know won't store very long. Oh, and try roasting your garlic cloves before dehydrating & grinding...best garlic powder ever!
"Thick, long, voluminous garlic scapes." As you said the words I pictured my hair growing back in but now, it's all garlic scapes. I was horrified at first, but now I think I'd definitely be into it. Never ending supply of scapes and always at hand!
Hey, I was just thinking about you and your garden. I was thinking, perhaps you should install some shade cloth to bring the temperature down a little bit over whatever area in your garden you might need it.
Oxygen absorbers are different from silica packets. Silica takes out moisture, oxygen absorbers, well, taje out oxygen. Works best if you use both. I recently bought a Harvest Right Freeze Dryer and will be trying my garlic in that.
I like to not only make garlic powder but take some peeled cloves and put it in a mason jar covered with vinegar and leave it in the fridge. You get fresh garlic for cooking anytime and also flavors the vinegar for cooking later (caution is will concentrate the flavor in the vinegar!)
desiccant packets are different than oxygen absorbers. i definitely want to grow my own garlic next year for this reason! and to make dehydrated minced garlic to store. i love fresh garlic but when i buy it at the store i use 1 or 2 bulbs and the others tend to go funky before i can totally use them up! this way i can keep them on hand and make tons of the powder and minced and garlic salt and homemade spice blends all from my own stuff!
i chop mine in the food processor, spread them on parchment paper then put in the spice grinder when dried Perfect! use a moister absorber, since that is something you will open several times. O2 absorbers are for long term not opening a lot
Just made garlic powder with my homegrown garlic too! If you need a method to peeling the cloves, if you have soak the cloves in super hot, almost boiling water, they peel so easily. The chesnok red I grew was my favorite! Thank you for making these sorts of videos, you are such a huge inspiration to my gardening journey. If you ever need an apprentice, just let me know ;) (Just kidding... maybe.... HA!)
Shocking this worked for me. Where planting them out in fall never had. Squirrels around here love em. Planted out as soon as I could work the soil. Hard year with watering in a raised bed but I’m getting bulbs.
In my childhood we added some rice to the salt to keep it dry and prevent clogging. Maybe it could work with garlic powder too and you don't need those silica bags then..
I do this as well. I have the same exact grinder. I actually sift mine through a small mesh strainer and dump the larger pieces back in to grind a bit more.
Im making a new raised bed just for garlic this fall.. I’m in Southern Maine.. still researching the types I want to grow. I got seed garlic last fall .. and forgot about it 😣 great video!
Very timely video I just harvested mine and was wandering what to do next. Dehydration is a good idea. I have just processed some cilantro seeds into coriander and it is yummy.
In my zone 5 experience hardneck garlic falls over when it is over watered, especially if the leaves have not started browning or have a scape. They will recover if you stop watering. I stop watering when I first see scapes. Hardnecks are ready when the bottom few leaves are brown.
Probably the best gardening channel. I only wish you did cannabis also; like me, but I can understand the family friendly thing too, lots of knowledge I can carry over still. Your presentation, knowledge and editing is Epic!
I can't believe my luck. Oct/Nov in zone 10b we had a cold spell (5 whole days). That's when I ran out and planted my garlic. I've been unsure how to tell when it's time to harvest. Thanks to this video series, I think next week might be the time. I thought maybe because the leaves all turned yellow, I had made a mistake somewhere along the way. I really appreciate your time. I love the fridge idea. I did it with mine but I wasn't sure if I "fooled them"..
The silica is a desiccant to remove moisture. Oxygen absorbers remove oxygen. It's recommended to avoid using both in the same package since the O2 absorber needs some moisture, I think. However, you can use both in the same package, just put them at opposite ends - e.g. the desiccant on the bottom and O2 absorber on top of the product. Apparently, silica may not be the best - perhaps it has acidic effects? But you can get clay desiccants that are better for putting into food products. For oxygen absorbers, it's important to only use with completely dry products or there is some risk of botulism, supposedly. Not sure how often that happens, but if it happens it's deadly. I saw some official government document stating the maximum percentage of water allowed to avoid botulism. You can get moisture meters to help determine water content. You'll have to research and verify everything yourselves, of course.
Thank you so much for this informative video on garlic. We planted 409 cloves of garlic last fall. A lot of varieties of soft and hard neck. I am so looking forward to harvesting the scapes. I've had a lot of people ask me what we are going to do with all of it.. well, we have a freeze dryer so I will definitely be making some powder. I am wondering if I will be able to freeze dry them whole and perhaps reconsititute them or just throw the whole pieces into soups?? One thing we did last year was make black garlic. I was wondering, have you tried this out? It was our first time making it last year and we were successful at turning it into black garlic by using our dehydrator and putting the garlic bulbs into jars. It was pretty time consuming but from the reading and research I did on it... this was the easiest way for us. We did have to tend to it everyday in some manner but it turned out great.
Well done, can't wait for my first garlic harvest this summer here in Australia, i have way too much all soft neck but i might have to try a hardneck here next year to see if i can grow it here and get any scapes
For those who don't have a dehydrator, we dice up the garlic finely and put it in a jar and freeze it and scrap off what we need from the top (or put it into multiple small pots and defrost and use). We also do the same with chilli.
Amazing idea! Thank you so much
Garlic chives... just poke some in a pot and they have spouted.
ha ha...how did you know?😁
I would think some silicone trays would be great n then transfer to
A freezer bag
Not a bad idea! Wonder if it works well for ginger?
@@trashcatlinol yes we've done this with ginger as well and it works great
in Romania, at the country side, they braid the dried stalks together and hang them somewhere with a lot of airflow. instead of cutting them... they do the same with onions too.. that is really cool way to store them😀
same in Italy, Portugal and Spain, we also do it with onions. it's practical and looks lovely
You can only do that with softneck type garlics. He grew hardneck, which have a stiff stalk up the center, and can't be braided.
I braided my garlic this year, but it has to be soft neck. To string onions requires a 4 cord set up to get the right spacing for storage. I hang the garlic in my kitchen and break off when needed.
That's what I do with my onions
You can also dehydrate the scapes. That's what I do with mine. It's a great powder, kinda like a peppery garlic taste. 😊
That is brilliant! We grew garlic for the first time and had our first scapes... I'm a fan. I'm powdering some next year.
I'd have just made a giant sauteed scape salad with those.
As a dabbler, could I get away with low temps in the oven on a wire rack before investing in a dehydrator?
@@riffedwood5597 Yup. Hundreds of youtube videos on oven and air drying.
@@riffedwood5597 I just bought one (excallibur basic) and its HUGE. I also have the round type I got at local store (around $40) but they dont work very well. I LOVE having the real deal, ive dried peas, carrots, cherries, apples, onions, and about to try peppers and tomatoes...looking for more to dehydrate. Food retains up to 80% of nutrients vs 30-50% retained freezing. great to add to soup in winter.
“Garlic smoke, don’t breathe that in!”
Take my damn like.
Now we know.. Garlic WILL blend!
Me: grows chillies
Epic gardening: How to make a salsa garden
Me: buys strawberry seeds
Epic gardening: How to grown strawberry
Me: plants corn seeds
Epic gardening: How to grow corn
Me: plants garlic
Epic gardening : *garlic video*
LOL
So you're allways right in time. 😉
Kevin, you sweet sweet angel. You are literally the reason why i will finish my gardeners courses and get my papers this fall. Our teacher sucks a lot and bc i started 6 months ago as a clean slate, i have A LOT to learn. You make everything so easily understandable and clear. I feel like im wasting so much time in school and the only time i really learn is with your videos. Doing the gods work! :D Thank you so so much! I really appreciate all you do!
This year I tried something different with my garlic bed. I let the scapes develop into flowering heads, and drop the seeds back into the bed, and harvested the bulbs. The bulbs were smaller then if I had removed the scapes, but still plenty big for use. I am wanting to see if the scapes will reseed it self into garlic bulbs as the parent plant. I will replant some of the bulbs this fall also.
Interesting technique!
@Shnarfy McShmoombles hopeful a substantial crop,...someday.
We have done this with onions, and leeks.
Kevin, I wouldn't call it an interesting technique, it's what nature does and sometimes it's easier to leave it alone.
I took a spring onion end from the kitchen (green onion? Scallion?) and planted it in some space a couple years ago. It grew. It flowered. It reseeded. They grew. By not rushing it, I now
have a patch of spring onions. All from 3mm (1/8th inch?) of a single kitchen scrap 😉
The bees also love the allium flowers, so it's win win all around.
The seeded garlic might look different. After 1 year they normally look more like an onion, but that's ok. You can eat them anyway. When you leave some in they will develop the typical bulb in the second year. 😉
@@georgeprout42 It's an "interesting technique" because most typical gardening techniques are optimizing for yield size or frequency of yield. Of course this is what nature does, but that doesn't mean you get as much garlic or as often, though if that's not your primary concern then it may work for you. So yeah, it's definitely easier, but you won't get as much of a harvest. It's a trade-off.
I love that you’re dehydrating your harvest!! I feel like many of us gardeners sometimes don’t know what to do with an overly abundant harvest. I started dehydrating last year but need to be more consistent with it.
Absolutely!!
I totally agree! I grew 3 basil plants this year thinking I would keep up with the production and just use it fresh... by may... i had so much basil i didn't know what to do with it all and already have enough for 6 months in my freezer! lol
I dehydrated so much it gets bulky I started making powder of all sorts like a mixed vegetable powder is amazing as a soup base or to flavor almost anything.
That's a lot of Garlic 😍
I agree james
LOL..........I have harvested 152 garlic plants that are all almost double the bulb size. My neigbour has over 600 bulb and are on avg. 110% bigger than mine. We live in a city suburb and are so far north I can throw a rock at Santa house.
@@amac9245 tell me your secrets
Enough for one recipe
This garlic series was very helpful . Thank you
A mini mandolin / garlic slicer is game changer. Highly recommended
I dry mine at 95F to keep better flavor, even if it takes a little more time. BTW - after grinding, a little arrowroot powder can help stock clumping during storage. There's a difference between desiccant packs which control moisture, and O2 absorbers - you need desiccant packs for your use.
Make sure the desiccant packs are for food , they make different ones for different uses. Love your channel ❤️❤️❤️
I live in garlic country north of Gilroy CA and they just dig up the garlic in the fields and leave them piled up in the rows to cure for about 2 weeks. They also have to post armed guards now to keep the "Garlic Rustlers" from stealing out of the fields! Sure smells garlicy around here in July-Sept.
I love driving down 101 through Gilroy after the garlic has been harvested! We roll down the windows and breathe deeply!
Oh man. A week after my harvest. So much info- I’ll use it to double my yield next year!!!!
Def!
Same
Great garlic. I have grown softneck many times, usually from store bought organic garlic. Sometimes I will harvest it while it is still “green”, often called Mexican garlic bulbs in the groceries stores. That garlic is very mild and can be used just as you would green onions - great in salsas!
BTW: You can save the garlic “chips” as they are instead of making garlic powder. Just put in a morter and pestal and gring them as you need them. You can also roughly chop them and use them as a garnish, in soups and stews or make your own “everything bagel” seasoning!
I dehydrate using lowest temperature possible bc heat changes the flavour. I used to spread garlic on a baking tray set in front of a room dehydrator. I grind with a cheap coffee grinder and sift it over canning funnel into jar. The coarse pieces either go back into the grinder or stored as granulated garlic. I reuse the silica packs from sushi nori to keep my garlic powder from clumping. For replanting, use your biggest best cloves for the largest bulbs. You never need to buy seed garlic again except to keep collecting more varieties. I'm guilty of growing 12 hardneck varieties.
Shoes use dessicants to absorb water. Oxygen absorbers do oxygen. Also if they're left in the open air for 60 minutes, they are completely depleted. Ideally you want them within 3 minutes.
Hi Kev, the storing is actually the other way around. Hardneck stores up to 12 months if properly stored.
He caught me by surprise saying that. I've still got some of last years hardneck garlic hanging up that I never got around to planting this year - it still looks perfectly good to eat.
Hardneck doesnt last at all, softneck can do like 18 months california early properly cured lasts forever
Oh my goodness I love garlic scapes! They make an amazing pesto, they are amazing in stir fry, and are so good in an omelette.
Literally googled last night how to plant my garlic after I had it sprouting in water this video is right on time!
If u plant it the wrong time of year you can use the green shoots for very tasty chutney
I got you!
@@conqueryourfuture6134 Nice! Will keep that in mind I do love a good chutney ☺️
A truffle shaver works really well for thin slices
This was extremely helpful! I know now to plant them a lot deeper and mulch them over. And thanks for showing a way to process them after they've been harvested.
I also live in southern california and look forward to growing both potatoes and garlic for the first time this year. Your videos are so helpful and detailed!! Thank you for everything you do and sharing your knowledge.
Great to see successful garlic growing in a hot country, I come from the UK and growing garlic I took for granted. Now I live in Perth in Australia I was unsuccessful. Now I know your experiment has worked I will certainly be giving it another go. FYI the dehydrator is epic!
Canning funnels are great for getting powders into jars. Your garlic looks awesome...I'm a garlic failure as well, hoping to try again soon!
I'm a gardener in Oceanside and new to your channel. Just like you, I'm constantly experimenting with plants. This year I've decided to go against the odds and plant grocery storeg garlic. I'm determined to ammend the soil properly and feed regularly. I put my garlic in refrigerator for about a week. After that I planted approximately 400 large cloves. I shall see.
What a wonderful vid. Thank you. You are absolutely right about the scapes. Harvest and use them. As a result, the bulbs will be larger. Here in Ottawa Ontario, hard neck stores longer
than soft neck; 10 - 11 months in a dark cupboard at room temp. is not unusual. We harvest when the bottom 3 - 4 leaves have browned and shriveled. Keep well, and safe.
I live in Northern Ontario and planted my garlic last fall. When the snow melted, the garlic had already started to sprout. I should be ready to harvest in about 4 weeks. First time growing garlic. Thanks for the info on making garlic powder.
G'day mate.
Epic video as always. Oh man, those scapes. I just love them in a stir fry or using them to make a pesto. Yum!
So much info in this video once harvesting time comes. Good on you mate.
All the best,
Daz,
Man! If I lived just two hours closer I would volunteer to come work in your homestead for free just to learn from you in person. Please keep up the great content!!!
I LOVE making garlic powder but this is my first year growing a bunch of garlic and I wasn't sure about harvest or cure time. Thank you SO MUCH for this video. Most useful. Happy Growing. Cheers, Ivy.
All the dislikes are from vampires.
🧛♂️🧛♀️🌞🤣
@@Zizzyyzz❤❤
Vampires HATE this one simple trick!
Something I did this year with my garlic harvesting and I loved it! I grow Music, so a hard neck. I dig my fork around the perimeter of the bed and lift like broad forking. I get to stand up this way and the deeper bulbs just lift right out. Not to mention the bed is nearly perfect for planting the next crop. It worked beautifully. I used this method on my leaks too. we have heavy red clay around here. Being able to lift ANYTHING right out of the ground is nothing short of meraculous.
I'm so happy that I invested in a garlic slicer! I'm going to be a slicing fool! 😆
I'm harvesing a thousand plants, most likely this weekend. I raised the seed for this crop, keeping the same four varieties of hardneck organized. I have watched videos prior to all previous harvests (5). This video is the best, most complete one I have watched about how to harvest. Nice going!
Loves the whole Garlic Growing Journey! Thanks for putting so much energy, knowlege and details into the video ! Amazing job! Very inspiring!
Just found Epic Gardening this morning! Best explanation of how to grow garlic --great for a beginner/new gardener which I am. The information on the "cold" requirements (never heard from others) is great as I live in a high desert area. I watched several other videos but this one (all 3 parts) was so easy to understand and logical. Thank you!
I love garlic, I put garlic powder on everything. This is on my list.
I'm loving these videos, freshly new to the garden world! Thank you for making these videos.
So awesome 🤩. I’m planting my garlic from last year’s harvest this month. They were very small. I didn’t fertilize, or compost them enough. They were still delicious. Thanks for making this series. I will continue to watch it again as my garlic grows.
Thanks for the tips and visual cues of what to look for. I planted 3 garlic bulbs that grew a little in my fridge. It’s my 2nd attempt. Finally 2 out of the 3 have stems growing of about 2”. Now I know from your video I’ve got a long way to go before I can harvest them! Thanks Kevin
Homemade garlic powder is the best! It retains the zing of fresh garlic and is so much more tasty than store bought. Once you try it, you'll never want to use store bought again!
I just yanked mine out of the ground yesterday! Zone 6a - I've done absolutely NOTHING other than plant it last fall and cover it in deep mulch, then wait (the hardest part). When the seed pods started to look like they were making actual seeds and getting ready to spread, I pulled! this is my first round of garlic, I'm SO excited!
Amazing dude!
I absolutely love this channel! I have done everything wrong with garlic and thought it was just too hard to grow. I will definitely try these tips and tricks, especially soaking in the baking soda solution! Also, I had no idea how very long the growing season is, and I probably gave up too early! Thank you, Kevin!
Per best garlic grower in country, cut scapes when it loops into P shape, then only cut to point of upper leaves, not down to base.
Once bottom leaves, 40% of all leaves brown, shut off watering and allow to dry for 1-2,weeks, then pull.
In Lithuania we grow only hard neck garlic. We are planting it out end of October, in winter months the ground freezes (temperature drops to minus 20 fahrenheit), harvesting in the summer(July, August). It stores well until March, April. The rest we just freeze.
Make some alternative cheaper black garlic by soaking them in soy sauce for a month, after that month you'll end up with garlic infused soy sauce and soy sauce infuse garlic gloves.
Lightly dry your garlic cloves and store them in a glas jar with soy sauce and keep the jar in the fridge for good storage.
It must feel so satisfying to see the results of your labor.
Harvested my garlic about a week ago. Got about 70 bulbs from 80 cloves. Much better than the 10 for 50 last year
Yay for garlic! Harvesting mine Thursday. We had a lot of rain last night so letting it dry a bit. Bottom 3 leaves are dried and withered, 4th is starting to dry. 4 varieties, Majestic, Great Northern, Susan Delafield and Red Rezan. 210 (207 now as I pulled 3 test cloves and ate them) cloves await!
This was an excellent tutorial on harvesting garlic. My first time and I made mistakes, but all in all, not too bad.
I just harvested my first-ever garlic crop. I had procrastinated planting it so it wasn't in the raised bed until December 28, 2020. So far, I harvested the soft neck - Early Italian Red. Unfortunately, I did this right before finding this video, so I already cut off the top half of the leaves and all the roots. Then I tied them together and hung them outside under an awning to dry. Hope they'll come out OK. One mistake I made was letting water onto them after their leaves were brown and they were fallen over. Would have been better to let them stay completely dry in the ground. The heads are a bit small, likely due to how late I planted them? But they're very tasty! I had no pest troubles. Nothing seemed to want garlic - just like nothing wants all the onions. I love alliums.
For an even grind I would recommend getting a conical burr coffee grinder for your dehydrated spices. Much more consistent on the grind size, and the grinding process of conical burr generates much less heat than the blades of a traditional spice grinder (better for the spices)
Hardnecks will store for up to 12 months if they're really well cured and stored. I generally only grow hardnecks in our cold climate and mine is harvested in our late spring/early summer (Nov/Dec). It lasts almost until I harvest my next lot the following year. I usually run out just before my new lot is ready.
I agree, I live in a Northern climate too. I’ve always understood that hard necks store better and longer than soft necks 🤷🏻♀️
@@Samsona75 they do.
Congrats on your harvest Kevin!
Man, I LOVE scapes, they last ages in the fridge and we eat them in everything, yummo! Only 4 or so more months until I can harvest mine here in Australia 😊
And great work on the garlic powder 😍
Amazing work! Thanks for sharing all this knowledge with us! I just got garlic who start making leaf in my basket, so I wanted to plant him, and thanks to you, now I have a lot of info on how to do it! :D
Thanks a lot! And awesome work!
Nice. We grew garlic for the first time, curing now. I never thought of making garlic powder, I'm doing that for sure. Cultivated to a ripe blue color. Take care, kind sir.
I'm in zone 6b and I to grow a hardneck variety called paradise red. Very big , nice bulbs. I plant in early fall and harvest in late summer. I plant sixteen pounds of cloves each year. I don't wash them and just let them dry for a couple of months. I trim them when the temps get cooler and they store well in a brown paper bag in a cool dark place. They stay good a year or more but I use garlic almost daily so rarely do I have them for a year
Loved seeing the harvest! Amazing!
I run the elephant garlic scapes threw the juicer, then use that for cooking... stored forever in the fridge due to nothing actually liking it. I also have played with juicing the garlic cloves as well and didn't notice any change to the flavor of dehydrating the pulp that was left over.
Might try doing some Black Garlic on your next harvest. I did a batch and it might be my favorite thing. The flavor is so unique, its like a sweet tart garlic flavor with the consistency of tar. I am sure you can do a lot with it, I find crushing it in a mortar and pestle with some good olive oil and using it as a dip is one of the best things. You can add some fresh basil and or some crushed red pepper as well. *Chefs kiss* fantastic.
Great stuff, and nice harvest, Kevin! 👍
I do the same thing with my smaller onions that I know won't store very long. Oh, and try roasting your garlic cloves before dehydrating & grinding...best garlic powder ever!
You are seriously living my dream! Ive always heard garlic are notoriously hard to grow but maybe I’ll give it a try this fall!
"Thick, long, voluminous garlic scapes." As you said the words I pictured my hair growing back in but now, it's all garlic scapes.
I was horrified at first, but now I think I'd definitely be into it. Never ending supply of scapes and always at hand!
Hey, I was just thinking about you and your garden. I was thinking, perhaps you should install some shade cloth to bring the temperature down a little bit over whatever area in your garden you might need it.
That's on the menu!
Oxygen absorbers are different from silica packets. Silica takes out moisture, oxygen absorbers, well, taje out oxygen. Works best if you use both.
I recently bought a Harvest Right Freeze Dryer and will be trying my garlic in that.
I like to not only make garlic powder but take some peeled cloves and put it in a mason jar covered with vinegar and leave it in the fridge. You get fresh garlic for cooking anytime and also flavors the vinegar for cooking later (caution is will concentrate the flavor in the vinegar!)
Congrats on this stanky success!! And as always, thanks for the garden tips and def enjoying the dehydration advice as I'm now getting into that!
I love watching your videos I am also a Gardener and a farmer myself.
desiccant packets are different than oxygen absorbers. i definitely want to grow my own garlic next year for this reason! and to make dehydrated minced garlic to store. i love fresh garlic but when i buy it at the store i use 1 or 2 bulbs and the others tend to go funky before i can totally use them up! this way i can keep them on hand and make tons of the powder and minced and garlic salt and homemade spice blends all from my own stuff!
After seeing all that garlic. I want to make Adobo!
i chop mine in the food processor, spread them on parchment paper then put in the spice grinder when dried Perfect! use a moister absorber, since that is something you will open several times. O2 absorbers are for long term not opening a lot
Just made garlic powder with my homegrown garlic too! If you need a method to peeling the cloves, if you have soak the cloves in super hot, almost boiling water, they peel so easily. The chesnok red I grew was my favorite!
Thank you for making these sorts of videos, you are such a huge inspiration to my gardening journey. If you ever need an apprentice, just let me know ;) (Just kidding... maybe.... HA!)
One of my favorite seasoning right now is Mrs Dash Tomato, Basil, and Garlic. I plan to try and replicate that this year.
My mouth was watering the whole video. What an amazing bounty! 🤩
Shocking this worked for me. Where planting them out in fall never had. Squirrels around here love em. Planted out as soon as I could work the soil. Hard year with watering in a raised bed but I’m getting bulbs.
I'm so curious, out of all the garlic you grew which one was your favourite?
I don't have a dehydrator... but I make picked garlic for storage. Equally delicious
In my childhood we added some rice to the salt to keep it dry and prevent clogging. Maybe it could work with garlic powder too and you don't need those silica bags then..
Am grateful for your videos! Thank you!
Congrats on the great harvest! I live in 8b, and I plan on using some of your tips to grow hard neck garlic next year!
I do this as well. I have the same exact grinder. I actually sift mine through a small mesh strainer and dump the larger pieces back in to grind a bit more.
Im making a new raised bed just for garlic this fall.. I’m in Southern Maine.. still researching the types I want to grow. I got seed garlic last fall .. and forgot about it 😣 great video!
Whoop. Feeling the joy in your success 💕
Very timely video I just harvested mine and was wandering what to do next. Dehydration is a good idea. I have just processed some cilantro seeds into coriander and it is yummy.
I really appreciate your mistakes. They make me feel so much more normal!
We really need to start growing garlic next year.
Covered it very well!! answered all my questions.Thanks!!
In my zone 5 experience hardneck garlic falls over when it is over watered, especially if the leaves have not started browning or have a scape. They will recover if you stop watering. I stop watering when I first see scapes. Hardnecks are ready when the bottom few leaves are brown.
Probably the best gardening channel. I only wish you did cannabis also; like me, but I can understand the family friendly thing too, lots of knowledge I can carry over still. Your presentation, knowledge and editing is Epic!
I may as well!
@@epicgardening definitely should. I started with cannabis then started growing veggies now. Used ur channel and others for help.👍🏾😀
I thought you did. 🤭🤭
I can't believe my luck. Oct/Nov in zone 10b we had a cold spell (5 whole days). That's when I ran out and planted my garlic. I've been unsure how to tell when it's time to harvest. Thanks to this video series, I think next week might be the time. I thought maybe because the leaves all turned yellow, I had made a mistake somewhere along the way. I really appreciate your time. I love the fridge idea. I did it with mine but I wasn't sure if I "fooled them"..
Looks great 👍
This is awesome to learn how to grow garlic!!
I use a small funnel to pour things into jars. Thanks! I am going to try.garlic this year!
Wow you can harvest garlic fast.
This is SO helpful! Thank you, Kevin!!
The silica is a desiccant to remove moisture. Oxygen absorbers remove oxygen. It's recommended to avoid using both in the same package since the O2 absorber needs some moisture, I think. However, you can use both in the same package, just put them at opposite ends - e.g. the desiccant on the bottom and O2 absorber on top of the product. Apparently, silica may not be the best - perhaps it has acidic effects? But you can get clay desiccants that are better for putting into food products. For oxygen absorbers, it's important to only use with completely dry products or there is some risk of botulism, supposedly. Not sure how often that happens, but if it happens it's deadly. I saw some official government document stating the maximum percentage of water allowed to avoid botulism. You can get moisture meters to help determine water content. You'll have to research and verify everything yourselves, of course.
Thank you so much for this informative video on garlic. We planted 409 cloves of garlic last fall. A lot of varieties of soft and hard neck. I am so looking forward to harvesting the scapes. I've had a lot of people ask me what we are going to do with all of it.. well, we have a freeze dryer so I will definitely be making some powder. I am wondering if I will be able to freeze dry them whole and perhaps reconsititute them or just throw the whole pieces into soups?? One thing we did last year was make black garlic. I was wondering, have you tried this out? It was our first time making it last year and we were successful at turning it into black garlic by using our dehydrator and putting the garlic bulbs into jars. It was pretty time consuming but from the reading and research I did on it... this was the easiest way for us. We did have to tend to it everyday in some manner but it turned out great.
Thank you❣As usual, I always learn a lot of good things.
Well done, can't wait for my first garlic harvest this summer here in Australia, i have way too much all soft neck but i might have to try a hardneck here next year to see if i can grow it here and get any scapes