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Old August 9, 2015   #16
Father'sDaughter
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Beautiful braids! I always thought it couldn't be done with hardnecks.

Last year I took all the smaller cloves from the bulbs I broke up for planting and the ones with wrappers that had split open while curing, and dried them for garlic powder. Worked out well and the end product made the grocery store stuff taste so bland. If you have more than you can eat fresh or give away, garlic powder keeps a lot longer in an airtight container and certainly takes up a lot less space! I don't know if I'll have enough this year to cover planting and fresh use, so I may skip drying as I still have quite a bit of powder left from last year.
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Old August 10, 2015   #17
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At least you don't have to worry about vampires, Sari!

I think braided garlic as well as braided onions are great as kitchen decor, and so handy when cooking.
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Old August 15, 2015   #18
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Beautiful crop, Svali... so interesting to see all the varieties you found.

This will be my second year with a crop of garlic - year before that I started with bulbils from some Music scapes I was given, that flowered in the vegetable bin. Planted in fall, they produced nice rounds, and those produced my first crop last year, and a small crop from one bulb of Chesnok Red I was able to get hands on, and one clove of Leningrad. .. I was so thrilled to have my own garlic at last!

This year I have more of those planted, plus a few plants of Persian Star and Argentina. I got bulbils from scapes again and have more Music, Persian Star, Chesnok and a few Spanish Roja bulbils growing..

We had such a cold wet summer, I'm a bit worried to see what the crop will be like.
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Old August 16, 2015   #19
meganp
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter View Post
Beautiful braids! I always thought it couldn't be done with hardnecks.
Hello Father's Daughter, to braid hardneck garlic you need strong thumbs and braid them before the stem completely dries - I followed this video and was really pleased with the results.

Here's last year's harvest 20150118_113417 by meganp08, on Flickr
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Old August 17, 2015   #20
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Those are beautiful braids Megan! I will try braiding like that, but my hard-neck garlic stems are so stiff that it may be challenging.

I harvested the last garlic variety last weekend. They were French soft-necs named Therador. Only few of this variety had bolted, so these will be good for braiding.
Garlic harvest Therador.jpg

I would like to find more hardy hard-neck varieties, which would grow well here in Finland. Growing garlic has not been very popular here, so obtaining cloves for planting is not easy.

I would like to try also Elephant Garlic, but those are not commercially available in this country. My colleague's mother has got seeds from a relative, who grows them in Finland, but it may take few years to get edible crop by starting from true seeds.

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Old August 17, 2015   #21
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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?
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Old August 18, 2015   #22
Father'sDaughter
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Default Garlic harvest 2015

Megan, beautiful braids! Thanks for posting the information on how to do it. My garlic stems are much too dry to think about doing it this year, but I'll give it a try next year soon after I harvest.
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Old August 19, 2015   #23
meganp
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Thanks Father'sDaughter, they make lovely gifts but it's such a shame when folks don't eat them and just keep them for display I try to grow enough to keep us going from one season to another, on the bright side if I ever do run out, know where I can raid a bulb or two!
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Old August 19, 2015   #24
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I have been now three nights braiding hard-neck garlic. The last one I did tonight was the best, but it has the big ones, which will be used for planting this fall. I was afraid that the hard-neck stems will not dry well when braided so I cut the leaves off from the stem about an inch above the bulb and braided just the flower stalks.

Here are some of my braids. The big one has the ones for planting. I did quite many with 7 or 8 bulbs, which can be given as gifts.
braided garlic.jpg
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Old August 19, 2015   #25
meganp
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great job Sari, the colour of the bulb wrappers is beautiful, much more vivid than when you harvested them
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Old August 19, 2015   #26
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Your friends will be very lucky! I find folks love the gift of a head or two . . .
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Old August 25, 2015   #27
svalli
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I found a perfect place to hang all the garlic braids. Now I have use for the space in our house, where I seldom go. It is the empty indoor swimming pool, I may turn it into garlic and onion storage area.
Garlic braids.jpg

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Old August 25, 2015   #28
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Beautiful! They are so decorative you may have to go there more often just to admire them.
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Old August 26, 2015   #29
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Sari, those are really pretty.
My family is from Finland,btw,although I don't know from where.
I just ordered garlic this AM. I made an order for a bunch of different ones. They are from Yong's Farm in southern AZ so I hope they will be more adapted to warmer climates.
I've only grown soft neck garlic,from grocery store,when I lived in AZ. I ordered Asiatic,Turban,soft neck and creole.mabiut 4 pounds,total.
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Old August 26, 2015   #30
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Beautiful garlic braids Sari! Nice job. I am so inspired by your pictures. I might have to try my hand at braiding next season.

Ginny
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