Garlic Harvest and Curing

[@maryhoffman9551]

I love seeing the teamwork! You guys are amazing. The stacking garlic boxes with the box fans on top is such a neat idea. This seems like a great system.

[@edibleacres]

It really feels promising for the scale we operate on an the limited space we also have.

[@DisillusionedAcronym]

@@edibleacres it's pretty insane, really, the level of efficiency you guys are achieving. kudos!

[@Crina-LudmilaCristeaAuthor]

So much garlic! And so massive! 🤗 It must've felt very nice to listen to the rain the next day knowing all your garlic is safely stored. Thank you for sharing!💛

[@edibleacres]

It felt incredibly relieving to have them safely in the garage just in time!

[@toddc2788]

I love seeing how labor intensive harvesting food can be. I appreciate your commitment, and ingenuity.

[@edibleacres]

Our pleasure to share.

[@cowboyblacksmith]

Thank you for your efforts! I bought a pound from you and right now Jan 1 2022 it's sleeping well in my raised beds waiting for Spring, it's so exciting!

[@dennisbeaver5958]

Can’t wait to plant the batch that just arrived! Now to build a drying rack!

[@cbm207]

Sasha knows how to work! She's the fastest out of all you (said with love)! Very impressive, and so inspirational the system and teamwork put in.

[@edibleacres]

Once Sasha gets going on a project she is insanely focused, fast and will outwork most of us!

[@viliamstojka4420]

Your drying towers are very efficient - love it!

[@edibleacres]

For our context they feel super useful for sure.

[@venuscousens4172]

You two blow my mind and i completely love it.

[@Rodgerrynd08]

LOVE that you're function stacking these racks with garlic and nut harvests! I appreciate that you do things with such intention and consideration!

[@edibleacres]

There is so much to do that if we get into making something as a solution it really has to serve a number of goals at this point.

[@cpnotill9264]

Really love your system for this years harvest and so awesome to have the manpower! I harvested close to 1,000 heads and also left tops in walkways, saved work and gave right back to mother earth. I will have to make some of the racks for sure and thanks for sharing. Happy to have some of your garlic growing wonderfully here on our homestead. Well done! 😁🌱

[@homesteadrevivals]

Loved this. Love your system. My garlic farmer friend gifted me with about a dozen bushels of scapes a couple weeks ago, and I've been madly trying to get them all dried and powdered. He's going to have more bulbs than he can plant this year, and I may be gifted with some garlic this fall. We've been wanting to try growing it in our maritime PNW climate to see how it does with ninety inches of rain.

[@barrypetejr5655]

That a serious garlic harvest !!!! great job guys 🤗

[@edibleacres]

It is at the upper limit of what we'd want to handle :)

[@morningwoodfarms713]

Omg...EPIC curing racks, harvest and efforts! Amazing! 😀🏆🙌💖

[@edibleacres]

We're happy with the basic design of them, and that they may be useful for a few other applications as well feels exciting.

[@mitchelllott]

beautiful team and system! give thanks

[@DisillusionedAcronym]

the teamwork is such a joy to watch.

[@cowboyblacksmith]

This is exciting, I have some of those exact ones I bought. It's nearing July now, ate the scapes, and they're doing marvelous!

[@jeffgroat2671]

You guys are so great!

[@jameswinnett4012]

That's excellent! Great video on your harvest and grow. Love the idea on the drying racks system, Thank you for the idea! ;) Our first harvest, this year, wasn't as successful, but have better plan for next year! Also, very interested in your nut harvest! Can't wait to watch.

[@ZombiesCometh]

A great video, lots of great ideas here. A great marriage of old and new, and shoutout to all your friends helping!

[@PleasantPrickles]

Great system! A very satisfying video to watch! 🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱😃

[@allonesame6467]

Love this method for processing volumes! Beautiful!

[@MrMcGillicuddy]

Looking good Sean. I love the garlic harvest. Funny I just hung all of mine in a shelter logic frame I put metal roofing on since the fabric cover was torn to shreds by winds. I JUST missed a down pour literally 2 hours after I got them in yesterday evening lol I used to grow 1000 bulbs per year. I broadfork the beds and only top dress as well. I get a tiny bit of mold some years but less than 10% loss at the most. I don't water either. I have pulled back to 250 bulbs to make time for other projects I want to do. I'll expand again later. Keeping bulbils growing in a patch so I can expand suddenly when I see fit.

[@MrMcGillicuddy]

I've been thinking of expanding saffron corms for personal use and try to make it a cash crop along with the garlic. Just enough to cover property taxes would be nice. I thought saffron was not feasible labor wise for a profit but I'm finding that the popularity of domestic saffron is promising. Especially if you plant it deep enough and can grow pharmaceutical grade saffron. It overwinters in 5b well. If I can streamline the process and get helpers I could see making 50 grand on a quarter acre in that short harvest window. Just figured I'd share that. maybe you guys might want to hop on the domestic saffron train. you can store it for 3 years with no potency loss if you dry it properly.

[@edibleacres]

Super interesting. If you ever have enough corms going and want to trade feel free to email me! sean -at- edibleacres.org We'd love to explore growing that.

[@ecocentrichomestead6783]

Great update! Garlic harvest next week here!

[@user-xp5qx8wg9x]

Thank you so much for sharing your process. Very kind of you and invaluable to many of us.

[@carolynconnelly3395]

Thank you.

[@nymbeats]

that looks like so much fun. I would love to hear more about/from Juan and other occasional guest stars who lend their efforts to your cause. I've been enticing friends into helping me move mulch/compost recently and it makes an incredible difference, both in the labor and in my satisfaction. getting others involves also helps to spread the interest and ambition.

[@edibleacres]

Definitely plan on that. We need a very formal introduction with Juan because he is a super core part of our project now. Should be within a few videos we do that, excited to have folks know more about how incredible he is! Allies and community FTW!

[@manjawarner3162]

This is a great system for growing, harvesting, drying and curing garlic. I had water my first successful grow a couple of weeks ago. I found that a soft vegetable brush works really well for getting the dirt off that root zone lickety-split like without damaging the delicate paper. 👍 Saved me a lot of time and was easy on my hands. 😉

[@manjawarner3162]

I really should proofread before I post. 🥴 What I meant to say was, I HARVESTED my first successful grow...

[@cchurch5037]

Such a great harvest and the curing rack setup is brilliant. Have lost quite a few good garlic due to poor curing … not anymore I’m getting to work on those racks 👍

[@edibleacres]

I am a big fan because they can also be used for curing herbs and drying/curing/long term storage of nuts so they serve many roles for us.

[@gardensforliferiverton]

You guys def deserve to feel proud!

[@edibleacres]

We are really excited by how well the garlic did this year.

[@angelad.8944]

Aw man, so envious, lol. Looks amazing. Kudos to everyone for all that hard work. Many hands make light work as the saying goes. I pulled all of my garlic up as well. Definitely time to amend my area deeply. Lack of rain also affected the size a bit. Seems like most of the weather systems are staying south of the border along the river these days. I am pretty sure we shared that rain storm though. Personally I am very happy to receive the rain. I will dream of a nice big field of garlic for myself now. I would love to have a winters worth of it. That would be amazing! Thanks for sharing the process.

[@myhillsidegarden3998]

Fabulous! Thank you for sharing how you harvest your garlic and cure it. Be safe and stay well. Catherine

[@fromthehutt9508]

I have 400 to pull in the next week or so here in Nova Scotia. One of my favourite crops to grow, can easily grow a years supply in a relatively small space. Excellent job and I may be building some drying boxes this week, beautiful system.

[@edibleacres]

At a smaller scale I think hanging and slow curing is a beautiful way to ease them into dormancy. Not selling our approach as best by any means, but useful for the scale of garlic we grow with our very limited curing space.

[@familyfungi]

That is immense! Thank you for sharing 👨‍🌾

[@edibleacres]

Our pleasure!

[@billastell3753]

Nice garlic harvest. I like your racking and drying box method.

[@edibleacres]

When we have so many garlics and so little space it feels like the only solution we can work with. I'm not thrilled with being dependent on electricity for this but in the grand scheme it seems reasonable. SO far it has been working really nicely.

[@WayOutWestx2]

You're just ahead of us - we're still harvesting. It's very satisfying, isn't it? : - )

[@edibleacres]

We love it. Hope you have a wonderful harvest over there!

[@nealvaughn2340]

Love it, Sean! Great work to you, Sasha, and your friends! What kind of lumber are you using for your drying racks? Is that pallet wood or some stuff from a sawmill that is rot resistant? And how do you cut the hardware cloth to fit?

[@edibleacres]

Good questions. The wood is mainly softwood, dimensional hemlock and pine. Lightweight and easy to screw into and easy to staple into. Since they aren't out in the elements or drying sopping wet product they truly don't need the rot resistance. The metal is cut with big metal shears I got from an amish auction... Maybe roof cutting shears?

[@nealvaughn2340]

@@edibleacres awesome! Thanks for the reply. I always find hardware cloth annoying to cut but still so handy. Of course the Amish have it figured out!

[@hiiii2849]

Super smart and super simple that looks awesome

[@russelpasamontehabla]

Beautiful harvest!👍👍👍

[@mwatson3302]

I live in the area and would be happy to help out in the future!

[@edibleacres]

Super kind, thanks! I'm at sean -at- edibleacres.org if you ever wanted to reach out :)

[@mwatson3302]

@@edibleacres Just did! Talk soon :)

[@GardensforLife]

What a harvest, well done! We've grown elephant garlic for the first time this year :D

[@edibleacres]

Fun crop for sure!

[@danielsmith336]

I will be planting a pound each of Elephant, Majestic and Georgian Crystal as well as a half pound of Dunganski this fall to see which varieties do well for me and taste the best. I also found some Babington's leek bulbils on ebay to try. I love your space efficient fan drying racks, I'll have to copy that when I ramp up garlic production in a few years

[@poodledaddles1091]

Wow! I could smell that all the way here!

[@edibleacres]

Thick aromas.

[@chaparra71]

Awesome!

[@Bright_iiii_s]

Does this mean you'll have plenty for sale for next year's crop?

[@edibleacres]

We'll make a video when ready but we plan to do a separate garlic seed sale in the next few weeks...

[@diamondchamberlin6285]

@@edibleacres Yippeeee! Just what I wanted to hear !

[@Bright_iiii_s]

@@edibleacres standing by :)

[@icarus901]

@@edibleacres yes please! What cultivars do you primarily grow?

[@chaparra71]

@@icarus901 I’d like to know as well ❤️

[@SomeRoomtoGrow]

I will absoLUTEly buy some of that when it's ready. It's huge! Great video and I can only imagine how tedious that was.

[@SerRegenera]

And it came!! amazing!! So bless all that garlic :) beautiful work and beautiful way to comunicate it, thank you! one question, how much you dried them on the boxes that you built to then store them for all year? thank you love from Uruguay

[@edibleacres]

Remains to be seen on drying time. We need to check the boxes today, and possibly rotate them to be sure everything is happening evenly. I'd suspect 10-14 days in the stack would be a good healthy number.

[@SerRegenera]

@@edibleacres Awesome! thank you

[@mandyrobertson4704]

I had read somewhere at cutting the stems off before they are totally dry can lessen their storage time. Have you had any issues with that?

[@kebekha1670]

Harvested mine just before the rain also. Not as many as you guys only about 200 heads, still a lot of work. I like the field processing, doing that next year. Hi Sasha, what yummy things are you going to do with the garlic that you guys keep for yourselves?

[@edibleacres]

We look forward to some very garlicy videos soon!

[@BoldlyGrowHomestead]

Just cleaned my garlic harvest today -- between 70-90 without checking my notes. Mine still come out fairly small but they we taste great for the time we have them.

[@edibleacres]

That is wonderful! That should be enough garlic for some lovely medicinal and delicious winter meals :)

[@farmerjones5479]

Amazing! I've never seen a bulb of hardneck so big! "I get by with a little help from my friends!" 🎶🎵

[@PeytonWind]

Haha you created some giant home-made food dehydrators. That's pretty neat. I'm wondering if it'll be necessary to rotate the racks at all? Like maybe just one full rotation. I've never seen fresh-picked garlic so I don't know how damp it may be.

[@edibleacres]

I can say about 2 weeks later that if the fans are on '3' or full blast AND we wrap the top with some plastic so most/all the air is forced down through the stack it seems we can go almost 6' high and still have nice crispy outer skins at the bottom. That said, 4' high seems like a reasonable average, which still holds 100 pounds of garlic nicely.

[@rlportillo]

Daaaaang! Well done!

[@cherylbertolini3140]

great garlic!

[@mikhailabelle]

and thank you! xoxoxoxo

[@ronk4073]

Will you have softneck garlic in your store as well? I've read the silverskin types of softneck garlic keep the longest. Rose Du Var is supposed to keep for up to a year.

[@edibleacres]

We have softneck we will offer, they have a purple skin to them and are quite nice

[@echandler673]

New subscriber here, wow that is a crazy amount of garlic. How many lbs of garlic planting garlic did you use to start it?

[@edibleacres]

We don't weigh so I don't know! I'd guess around 100 pounds maybe at this point?

[@blenderbenderguy]

Love the rack & fan idea. Is this the way you've always done it.... field dressing it like that? I was under the impression it was imperative to cure hard neck garlic with tops & roots intact until necks dry and tighten. If this works for you then I'm definitely going to opt for leaving tops & roots in the bed..... small garage too :)

[@TheMilkmaidFarm]

Love this! I need to harvest mine soon. I had to plant in the spring since I couldn’t get any last fall. I plant to just replant them this fall, so I can build up seed stock. This resulted in smaller bulbs. Do you think this will cause issues for following years head size?

[@edibleacres]

It may reduce it a bit in the short run, but they'll ramp up again. Later fall planting is by far our best window over the years.

[@GrowingLittleCountryhomestead]

No bugs in that garage anymore. My entire garage smelled of garlic and I only had 40 bulbs.

[@edibleacres]

We have a strong fan at the roofline aiming out and that keeps it from being overwhelming :)

[@GrowingLittleCountryhomestead]

@@edibleacres I could imagine. But I love the smell

[@tommybyrd2123]

They are certainly hard working...

[@kerem7546]

what was the reasoning behind beating the rain for the garlic harvest? does mature garlic rot when it gets soaked?

[@edibleacres]

I should have explained more... This particular field is very clay dominant, pretty heavy/dense and in a bit of a 'bowl'... 1" of rain would translate to standing water for a while. The garlic almost certainly could survive that but it would be super tough on at least the outer skins.

[@kerem7546]

@@edibleacres thanks for the explanation and for the educational insights!

[@Tsuchimursu]

do you only grow vegetative clones or do you sometimes let them go to seed and breed with true seeds?

[@peterellis4262]

After fifteen years, you have a landrace garlic ;) That's great! And I'm not being sarcastic, I mean to be recognizing that you've developed your own locally adapted variety (probably in less than 15 years, but surely there now).

[@edibleacres]

We feel like the garlic is moving slowly and steadily into a very healthy and robust expression of who they can be.

[@rogeriolisto]

Thumbs-up for sure. 😉

[@veganbean2552]

Those garlic look wonderful. Do you ship to the uk?

[@edibleacres]

I'm sorry but we don't :(

[@echandler673]

Do you grow elephant garlic also?

[@edibleacres]

We do! Starting to ramp up the numbers now a bit more.

[@md6397]

@4:38 sheep sheerers for the win.

[@edibleacres]

We love those.

[@Mattchew2232]

4:08 🤣. Nice handyman show.

[@edibleacres]

Ha. Yeah, we're super tech here :()

[@Vepoch]

I’m curious why people say to dry garlic with the leaves still on and separate when the leaves have gone totally brown. Obviously this isn’t necessary based on what I see here?

[@edibleacres]

By no means am I suggesting our way is the best at all. For our context, where we have very limited curing space and too large a crop for the space we have this system feels super promising. We cut tops and roots last year and air dried on a porch and were quite happy with the results.

[@Vepoch]

@@edibleacres do you know the reasoning behind the traditional method?

[@jameswoll]

Beauts!

[@parkerbender09]

I only have 800 bulbs of garlic but next year I plan to double and I will definitely be stealing that box idea

[@redrhino88]

The chicken or the egg or did garlic just grow feet?😀

[@johnstonj92]

The thumbs up killed me.

[@edibleacres]

I meant to cut that out but it felt fun to leave in some stupid stuff too.

[@johnstonj92]

@@edibleacres lol you should use montage music next time. Some extreme guitar solo in there with a big thumbs up at the end. Or you and sasha freeze in the air with a high five 🤣

[@SHARONSHORTOrchidsandGarden]

👍👍👍😊

[@VickyHafler]

I see you cut the roots and stems off! I hang. I like your way. But I only had 117 so hanging isnt a problem.

[@edibleacres]

I bet that on a small scale your way is 100% better than ours, since it lets them dry gently and easy into dormancy. I think thats great, its how we did it for years, but the scale iis just a little too large for us now

[@RagbagMcShag]

That's a decent amount of garlic, I think it could last me one week :P Why dont you eat the tops like with onions?

[@edibleacres]

We don't find the tops at this stage to be edible or enjoyable. Perhaps excellent for soup stock?

[@RagbagMcShag]

@@edibleacres oh good point, I only know the softer ones from younger garlics :) But I could imagine it being decent for making soup atleast

[@Smeakum]

🌟❤️🙌🏼

[@robduell3856]

So you don't cure the garlic. You just let it dry.

[@metamud8686]

Vampires beware!

[@Celladorzz]

[@releventhurt]

Vampires be warned

[@edibleacres]

The invitation is always there for vampires to explore a new and healthier relationship to garlic :)

[@releventhurt]

@@edibleacres u would invite blood suckers to your home? What if they would bite you then u couldn't garden in the light or even eat your hard work? Are u thinking this through? Just curious 😊

[@benneb663]

stinky garage tv

[@elenamazzullo3399]

Dear Guys! You are great! BUT! Sasha, please, take care of your hands! Use gloves !

[@RagbagMcShag]

I like to avoid gloves if it is just light work and if it doesnt "wear off" your hands too much since gloves are always sweaty after a while (which i dont like)

[@elenamazzullo3399]

@@RagbagMcShag - www.harborfreight.com/pigskin-leather-work-gloves-medium-64174.html - there are very cheap leather gloves for gardening or with a tool - I use and am very satisfied and my hands do not sweat!