thanks Sari, the braids need to be made before the stems are completely dry or else they are too brittle. I have grown elephant garlic in the past but wasn't impressed with the flavour (or more to the point, the lack of flavour). There are some hardneck varieties with almost as large cloves as elephant and they are much better tasting. Have you come across this blogger in Denmark -
https://toads.wordpress.com He may know of fellow garlic enthusiasts in Finland that you could trade with?