Mmmmm Garlic!

We went to college in the central coast of California and every time I drove to school from the Bay Area, I had to drive through Gilroy.

The Garlic Capital of the World!

If you have never been, it is a must. Just driving through on the freeway, you can tell why they call it the garlic capital. Mmmmm....It smells so good. They even have a garlic festival every summer.

It is on my bucket list...

Needless to say, we love garlic.

So we just had to try growing it. 

We simply bought some garlic heads from the store and then popped off the cloves and stuck them in the dirt. Be sure to leave as much of the paper on the cloves as possible.

The super tall green spikes is not the garlic. Those are green onions. The garlic are the thinner shoots behind them.

When over half of the shoots have gone yellow and dry, it is about time to pull them out of the ground. Don't wait until they are all dead or the garlic won't come out right.

Next, they need to be hung and dried for several weeks before they can be edible. The most common way to hang them for drying is by braiding or at least the prettiest way.

Being a girl, I do have some braiding experience.

Not looking too bad if I do say so.

It was kind of fun! Though messy. It might be best if the braiding is done in somewhere that can be easily cleaned.

Once done with the braiding is done, hang the braids up in a dry place, out of direct sunlight. Our garage worked. Four to six weeks later, we had really small garlic. 

What did we learn? Maybe next time try elephant garlic instead of store bought. Garlic is very finicky to grow, so be aware if you are going to try it yourself.

Goodluck!