Garlic-curing techniques submitted to The Ruminant:

Let’s start with one from my ol’ pal Eric Simons of Bountifield farm in Cawston BC, who is
much too busy to participate in his friends’ silly interweb shenanigans but whose retired father is not.

It kind of explains itself so let's keep this caption austere. Thanks Egon.

This one is from Kristine at Blue Chicory Garden, who also contributed to the trellising post. " 2 sticks about 4 feet long (1" by 1" lumber). Tie them together at one end. Slide the garlic in between them until you get to the middle; tie tightly at the middle. Continue adding garlic; tie tightly again at the end. Hang in a dry airy place out of sunlight - we use the back of our drive-shed. You can pack quite a few garlic in each pair of sticks - they don't have to go single-file. In some cases, we had to cut the stems off before curing because they were inhabited by the garlic-leek moth that's causing much trouble here in eastern Ontario - I prefer to sacrifice better curing rather than have the larvae munching their way to the cloves... But when the stems are cut off, the sticks need to be resting on something rather than hanging - I learned that when a set of sticks rotated to its natural balance point, garlic-heads down, and dumped its load of short-stemmed garlic on the ground..." Thanks Kristine.

These racks are great. I had the pleasure of touring Hope Seeds at its previous address in New Brunswick last year. This is what owner Andrea Berry uses for curing her garlic. The racks are hanging from wire attached to the rafters in the loft above the workshop. Thanks to Andrea for the tour.

 

This one comes from Jen in Michigan. "I did garlic for the first time this past season & my husband & I rigged up this Bicycle rack & rope system for curing our garlic in our basement. We just stuck or wove the garlic heads through the ropes & they stayed put until ready for storage. The Hooks are heavy duty storage hooks sold for basements and garages at most hardware stores and the rope is just looped back and forth over the length of the hook." With thanks to Jen.

Cool pics so far, no?  Imagine how cool this post would be with ten more…editor@theruminant.ca to send your photos.

 

 

 

 

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