A Garlic Primer

Always welcome in the kitchen!

             A Garlic Primer 

by Maren Cooke  for ReImagine Food Systems 

Why grow garlic?  

It's a very easy crop that gives your garden something to do in winter.

Few pests and diseases bother garlic.

Humans have used garlic for thousands of years for its flavor, nutrition, and health benefits.

Where to plant?  

Good drainage (so it works great in raised beds, or even big pots).

Full sun if possible.

When to plant?

Along about October is ideal, to get some root growth in before winter.  

Later is possible (into winter, as long as the soil can be worked), but your crop may not be as large.

Planting much earlier risks shoots coming up before winter, dying back, and taking moisture out of the bulb.

What kind of garlic?

There are two main types of garlic:  hardneck and softneck.  There are many varieties within each category, varying in time to harvest, flavor, and other characteristics, but we’ll look at the two main categories.  

Most store-bought garlic is softneck (shown on the left), which produces slightly larger bulbs on average and keeps longer after harvest — but for a small crop, long storage won’t matter.  

Hardneck garlic (right in the above photo) produces a stiff central stalk and a flower stalk, or scape (below).  Removing the scapes not only helps focus the plant’s energy on a bigger and more flavorful bulb (vs. energy going into the flower to produce seed), but provides a delicious early harvest — you can cut it up and use pretty much like garlic.  As the garlic plant matures, the remains of the central stalk become hard and woody.

How to plant? 

Separate the bulb, removing the outer skin — but don’t peel the cloves.

Select the largest cloves to replant, and enjoy the smaller ones in your next savory recipe.  

Make a trench three or four inches deep.  

Mix some fertilizer or compost into the trench, if you have it.

Plant individual cloves two or three inches deep (2-3” of soil above the top of the cloves)

Space cloves 5-6” apart.

Make sure that the pointy end is up and the hard, stubby (root) end down.  

Cover with soil to match the soil level around the area.

Add mulch to shade out weeds, moderate temperature changes, and protect soil from rain.

Some of these cloves have already started sprouting; 
as long as the roots haven't had a chance to dry out they're fine to go in the ground.  

What next?

Enjoy the winter!  Garlic actually needs cold weather to trigger bulb formation.

In early spring, you’ll see green shoots come up through the mulch.  

Garlic scapes

The central stalk of hardneck garlic would naturally mature into a flower, and produce lots of tiny “bulbils” that can each grow into a new plant.  But most people plant cloves instead, which gives a big head-start since cloves are so much bigger.  So we cut the scapes, usually in June, and use them as a delicious early harvest.  Trim off the brownish tip of the scape, and also cut off any of the lower stalk that is tough and fibrous (you can still chop those up for soup stock, or compost — and if you don’t compost, you can just toss ‘em back into the garden as mulch).  

Some of the scapes from a large garlic crop. 
These are a little far along (most would harvest sooner), but still good!

Bulb harvest

In July, you’ll see the leaves start to yellow.  

Keep an eye on the plants from day to day, and when lower leaves are brown but there are still at least 4-6 leaves that are mostly green, that’s a good time to harvest.  When the green is gone, the bulb is no longer being fed — but since each leaf corresponds to part of a layer of protective skin down on the bulb, once all the leaves are brown that husk will probably have rotted away in the soil, and the bulb will fall apart when you try to harvest it (if that happens, the garlic cloves are still quite edible;  you just have to dig them up and should use them soon since they won’t keep as long).  

Loose cloves from garlic harvested a little too late. 
Eat these soon, since they lack the papery protective layer. 
 

Aim for a harvest-day when it hasn’t rained recently (and don’t water the garlic for a week or so).  

It’ll all be easier, and the bulbs will be in better shape, if the soil around the bulbs is dry.  

Loosen soil and pry to lift each bulb.

For each plant, use a trowel or spading fork to loosen the soil deeply around the bulb (especially if you have softneck garlic).  Try to avoid poking the bulb — if it happens, just set aside those bulbs to eat first.  

Then pull gently up on the stalk while levering the trowel to help lift the bulb (the tip of the trowel should be below the bottom of the bulb).  If the stem breaks (not likely with hardneck) or cloves fall off, you’ll just have to dig for them.  Buried treasure!  

Ta-dah!  Up comes a fat bulb, roots and all!  

Brush soil off by hand, but no need to wash — remaining soil will dry and come off with the skins when you use the bulb.  Leave the stalk and foliage attached for now, but trim off most of the roots with garden pruners, kitchen shears, or old scissors. 

Curing garlic

Garlic needs to cure if it’s going to be stored for any length of time.  

Drying the bulbs in a shady, dry, airy place for a couple of weeks will allow the protective papery skin to harden and the flavor to intensify.  

Air circulation is key — if the bulbs are crowded, they might start to mold instead.

One simple method for hardneck garlic is to tie the stalks together (4-6 in each bundle) and hang them up so that each bulb has space around it.   You’ll need to tie them very tightly, as the stems will shrink as they dry.  Or you can set them out on some kind of rack or screen.  

For softneck, you can braid the flexible stalks in groups of three or more.

Be sure allow for air circulation, and keep curing garlic out of the sun and rain

(sun can scald the bulbs, and rain could lead to rot).

Storage

For long-term storage, you can keep the stalks hanging in bundles or braids, or cut off the stalks to store the bulbs in a mesh bag or basket.  

Keep in a dry place at room temperature (moisture will cause the cloves to sprout or rot). 

       Shade is good (avoid direct sun), dark is better.

Again, make sure there's good ventilation.

Don't store whole garlic in the fridge (it'll simulate autumn/winter, and the cloves will sprout).

You can save your biggest, best bulbs for planting time! 

         (you'll break up the bulbs at that time, and plant the biggest cloves)

      

To see garlic harvest and curing in action, here are a couple of great videos from Stark Bros. and Fruition Seeds.  

New Resource on Native Plants

 Pennsylvania Sea Grant has a new e-book about native plants:

https://seagrant.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Choose-Native-English.pdf

This is one of many resources on their web site;  there are many others on invasive species, green infrastructure, and related topics.

PennEnvironment's petition to ban polystyrene in Pennsylvania

[text from a PennEnvironment email, because it contains a lot more information than the petition page -- the petition message is customizable, so you can add talking points from this email.]  

Polystyrene foam, which you've probably been handed in the form of a takeout coffee cup, takes hundreds of years to decompose.1 Over time, it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, becoming ever easier for an animal to swallow.

In the belly of a sea turtle or a dolphin, this plastic can lead to sickness, starvation and death.2 The momentary convenience of keeping a drink warm leads to centuries of pollution and harm.

This isn't worth it. Tell Gov. Josh Shapiro: Ban polystyrene foam.

Each year, 26 million metric tons of polystyrene foam are produced worldwide, much of it for the purpose of single-use disposable items, like beverage cups and food containers.3

Thousands of tons of plastic are ending up in landfills or in the ocean, where marine animals consume it, damaging their intestines and causing painful, unnecessary deaths.

And because less than 3% of polystyrene gets recycled in the United States, every time we throw it away, we have to make more.4

This process is energy intensive and polluting, requiring petroleum and a host of other highly polluting ingredients that can leach into our food and drink.5

In fact, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has listed styrene -- the chemical released from polystyrene containers -- as a potential carcinogen.6 Polystyrene is just not good for us or the planet, and when safer and more sustainable alternatives exist, there is no reason to keep using it.

Call on Gov. Shapiro to take this step toward a zero-waste future.

We can create a country without polystyrene foam, but we need you to stand with us.

The support of people like you has helped our national network pass legislation banning single-use polystyrene foam containers in 11 states and counting.7

These bans could bolster global progress on polystyrene, too. The European Union's ban on polystyrene went into effect in July 2021.8 Countries such as France, Germany and Spain provide a roadmap for living without polystyrene and the harm it does to our planet. 

Why not make Pennsylvania the next place to say "no" to polystyrene?

Add your name: Help us keep one of the worst forms of plastic from harming wildlife.

Thank you,

David Masur
Executive Director

1. Mike Wehner, "It takes decades for polystyrene to break down, even in direct sunlight," BGR, October 13, 2019.
2. "Why is Marine Debris a Problem?" National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, last accessed October 10, 2023.
3. "Production forecast of thermoplastics worldwide from 2020 to 2050, by type," Statista, last accessed October 10, 2023.
4. Ross Sherman, "Statement: Maryland's plastic foam ban officially becomes law," Environment America, May 24, 2019.
5. "Why you should never use styrofoam again," Going Green, last accessed October 10, 2023.
6. "New substances added to HHS Report on Carcinogens," National Institutes of Health, June 10, 2011.
7. "Reducing Plastic Waste in the States," Environment America, last accessed October 10, 2023.
8. "EU restrictions on certain single-use plastics," The European Commission, last accessed October 10, 2023.

Movement-building workshop resources

These documents and links are offered as an educational resource, in conjunction with our Sustainability Salon series on movement-building and creating effective campaigns (including salons 141, 142, 144, and 145).  There's a video of the first one here.

You can learn more about Bill Moyer's Movement Action Plan on the Commons Social Change Library web site, and in videos like this one. 

Thanks to Penn Garvin for facilitating these sessions, and for these resources (click on each image for a larger view).

Job opportunity: Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse

Creative Reuse is hiring a part-time Operations Assistant, who will work behind the scenes in support of the staff and organization.  More information and application are here. 

Job opportunity: Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community

 BCMAC is looking to hire an executive director!

BCMAC’s mission is to protect the residents of Southwestern Pennsylvania, with emphasis on those in Beaver County, by informing them about the health, safety, environmental and economic impacts of fracking infrastructure, including the petrochemical buildout and by supporting sustainable alternatives to carbon-based energy sources and economic development strategies in Beaver County.

Job opportunity: Climate Nexus

Climate Nexus is expanding their Methane Team. The new campaign associate will help hold the oil and gas industry accountable for reducing methane pollution, and pressure governmental entities to stand up to the industry and craft policies that prioritize communities and the planet over corporate profits. Simply put, they want to humanize the fight against methane polluters.

Campaign Associate – Methane Accountability, Campaigns & Strategies

This is a remote position and they have team members across the country.