My garlic harvest is now cured and stored away safely hanging in my basement. I had it on a drying rack in the garage with a fan on it for about 2 weeks or so, and then I trimmed off the dead leaves and the roots, and then brought them inside.

I tried my hand at braiding the smaller variety, the Purple Glazer, but I think this technique must be better suited for soft neck varieties, as it was very hard to manipulate the stalks into the braid. There are numerous videos on how to do this online (I referenced this one).

Music, the larger variety pictured above, has stalks as much as a half inch thick, and some of them are still quite green, so I’ve just wrapped the whole bundle with some twine and hung it up. The green in the stalks suggests its not quite finished curing but given its most of the way there it should be fine hung up in a dry spot. My basement isn’t exactly humidity free but its dry enough, and last year’s garlic did just fine.

The stalks of my Spanish onions were starting to fall over in the garden so I decided it would be a good idea to pull them and set them to cure while we’re on holiday, rather than leave them in the garden. My shallots are still curing, along with the last of the multiplier spring onions I had allowed to get too overgrown. My hope is I can save those bulbs and try them out in either the early winter or next spring. I’ve never saved bulbs from onions but it should be easy enough.