Yesterday, I harvested the 400 garlic cloves I planted. Previously during the summer, I had mulched, weeded, and cut off these cool looking twisty flower stems called scapes. Now it was time to dig up the bulbs and see how well the cloves had turned into bulbs.
By nature I tend to be a tad impatient. Waiting 2-4 weeks for the paper thin peels to dry seems soooo long. And the work of twisting the stems and hanging the garlic bundles from rafter may sound romantic and fun.... But basically it is just a lot like work. That's where my wonderful husband comes into the picture. I had mentioned to him that the "Deliberate Agrarian" had made some sort of garlic dryer... "Could you make one for me, please?" So he looked at the picture that Herrick Kimball posted on his blog and figured, "I can do that." (Thanks H.K. for sharing your ideas!) So off to work my industrious husband went.
He made five big boxes of 1 x 6 material, reinforced with triangular corners, stapled 1/2 inch hardware cloth and glued it on to the boxes and further secured them with small wooden strips. In this picture the wood glue is drying.
I dug up the stiffneck garlic (took about 2 hours), snipped off the stems about 4 inches above the bulb, shook off the excess soil, and gentle "stabbed" the stems through the 1/2 inch hardware cloth. (Some stems were too big and these garlic had to be laid on their side).
I stacked up four of the drying boxes on top of the base which has a special compartment perfectly made to hold a 20 x 20 inch box fan. The fan gently moves air through the drying rack allowing the garlic to dry in a steady and quick way.
Here's the garlic drying rack in operation. In just one week's time the garlic will be dry enough to handle... and sell at the Market. The garlic that does not sell will go either into the ground for next year's crop or I will attempt to make garlic powder (another H.K. idea).
Today's Journey Joy: Drying garlic in a drying rack made with love.
