The 2017 Garlic Harvest

Storms rolled through thick and heavy last week and whenever rain seems imminent, somehow we all find our way to the garden. Stewart took a look at the garlic and the impending moisture and declared it time to harvest so Abram and I finished planting pole beans and headed over.

Garlic is one of our favorite foods to grow, harvest, and eat. It is so good and good for you and because it grows over the winter, it tends to do better than many of the summer crops that can be easily ravaged by heat or drought here. Last week’s harvest reminded me of why harvesting this allium is so fun – the children think it’s a treasure hunt!

“Look at this one!” “That’s huge!” “Ma, did you see what Ruthie has?”. It’s just so much fun.

We filled a big black trash can, a large tote, and a crate with the fresh garlic. It was right about then that we heard on the weather radio that severe storms were rolling through so I took the children to shelter and Stewart got the garlic into the barn and followed shortly behind us.

We trimmed the garlic tops and roots and ended up with what Stewart estimates as about twice as much garlic as last year’s harvest. Since last year’s harvest was our largest yet, we are blown away. And while many of the heads are quite large, it is also really spicy and pungent and doesn’t taste at all watered down to us.

In the end, once trimmed and stored, we ended up filling a box full of five pound potato bags (maybe 4-5) plus a crate and a basket I’ll be keeping on the counter for cooking and medicinal purposes. This may be enough garlic for all of our food and seed needs until the next year’s harvest, Lord willing.

I am in awe of the work the Lord has done with provisions such as this. Every year we harvest, the question is asked: “This really grew from just a single clove of garlic?”. Yes, children, yes it did. And isn’t it merciful and miraculous?

Previous Garlic Harvests

• 2016
• 2013
• 2012
• 2010 (back on our suburban homestead)