Garlic (is) History

Around 15,000 garlic bulbs have been harvested, retrieved, bundled, hung, and pruned with the help of 60 farmers and CSA members. We started pulling at 8am Sunday morning and just after noon the final bundles were hung in the barn. This is a monumental undertaking and we're so thankful we can accomplish the task with help from our food community. The garlic looks good, too.

This crop was planted last November from cloves saved from last year's harvest. Garlic cloves have been saved and planted from each harvest over the past 18 farming seasons at Anchor Run. Garlic bulbs/cloves/seed were last purchased in 2003 or 4 and I've heard that it's now safe to say we have unique varieties to our farm (I'm not 100% certain this is true, however, since we're planting parental clones in the form of cloves but apparently there are studies that found that changes can occur when environmental conditions change among other things).

Bundled garlic will hang and cure in the barn for a couple of months. Garlic that was pruned today will be distributed immediately as 'fresh and uncured'. Skin is removed more easily and the taste is more mild. These bulbs can be stored on your counter. This year we're not going to refrigerate the fresh garlic which can cause it to deteriorate more quickly in storage. Enjoy!