Harvest Monday, July 2nd, 2012

The only real harvest I got last week was basil - 10.7 oz. It got either dried or frozen for next year. Mostly I was camping last week. I wanted to pick the beans before I left but it was raining so I elected to let them grow. It turns out they are a good size right now, so it wasn't a mistake. I really don't like being in the bean bed when it is wet.

I did have one other harvest, but it doesn't get weighed until it is all dried and cleaned up and that is a couple week process. The leaves were beginning to die down on the garlic. Usually I let them go a bit more, but with vacation on the horizon, I was afraid they would lose too many leaves while I was gone and I wouldn't have garlic that would store well. So better to pick early. The leaves that are alive are the leaves that are the wrappers on the garlic, so the more the merrier for storage. This variety is German Extra Hardy and it will keep until the next harvest is ready in July. I still have garlic from last year that hasn't started sprouting and isn't rotting. I've grown others but I finally got rid of them and just grow this one. I love the size of the cloves for cooking. They are just huge.

I let them dry outside for a day. Usually I don't. I don't like to let the garlic see so much light. Usually I just keep them out for a couple of hours to let the dirt dry off, but life kept me from that. After I brush the dirt off a bit, I group them into 10s and hang them from the beam of the bike shed with string. The dirt doesn't really matter at this point, but I don't want the bikes to get too dirty. In a couple of weeks from when they were hung, I'll take them down and clean them off and cut the tops off. When I had softnecks I'd braid them, but this variety is a hardneck so I'll leave long necks (less chance of rot) and put them in a mesh bag in the basement.

Now I have space to put something else into the garden. The plan has kale going here. I'll probably start some indoors and plant out toward the end of July.

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.