The sweet smell of garlic

Baskets of Garlic - ready for storage.  Today was another beautiful Fall day.  It won't be long until our weather turns and the rain begins to settle in for good, but, for now, I'm enjoying the sun.  I've been slowly working around the yard doing a little clean up as I go, dead-heading flowers and pulling up annuals that have run their course.  Reyn has begun collecting up the falling leaves and I've been policing the weeds. I'm hoping that if we can stay ahead of things I'll be able to spread a layer of mulch on my flower beds before it gets too cold.  I'm also planning to plant tulip bulbs soon, but not until I get everything cleaned up.  I've been worried about the industrious neighborhood squirrels stealing my bulbs, so yesterday I went to the local recycling center and picked up a small roll of chicken wire with which to protect the bulbs once they are planted.  I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to use the wire, but I trust that I'll figure it out in time.

Today I cleaned out our garden shed in anticipation of storing our porch furniture there over the winter.  The clean out involved removing our harvested garlic which had been hung to dry in the shed in July.  We grew 6 different varieties of garlic, both hard necked and soft necked.  I have labeled the different varieties and kept them separate so that we can determine which ones we want to grow next year.  There are notable differences in the size of the heads and cloves, also their ease of peeling.  Determining which has better flavor is a bit more challenging.  It seems that they are all quite good.  We conducted a taste test of each variety - just like a wine tasting. The garlic was oven roasted and served on fresh bread. While there were clear differences between the garlics, all of them were great.  A couple of favorites stood out, but from the 8 people doing the tasting there was no consensus.

The garlic are now all dry and ready to be processed for storage.  That involves cleaning up the heads and cutting the roots off each head.  The hard necked varieties are cleaned of dried dirt, the loose papery skins are rubbed off, and the heads are cut from their stems.  The soft necked varieties are cleaned and braided together, then the braids are hung in the kitchen until the garlic is needed.  This is the first time that I have braided garlic, so it was a learning experience for me.  Now the challenge becomes using all of this beautiful garlic before it begins to go soft.  I think I'm up for the challenge.   I'll keep you posted.