Harvesting and Curing Garlic on the Farm
This Video is from the Youtube channel: “Homegrown Passion”.
Wondering when to harvest garlic and how to cure it properly for storage?
After almost nine months of growing, waiting, and wondering what was happening beneath the soil, it is finally garlic harvest day at Bradwood Farm!
In this video, I’m sharing the entire journey of our hard neck garlic crop—from cutting the garlic scapes to digging the bulbs and hanging the harvest to cure. I’ll show you how I know when garlic is ready to harvest, why I loosen the soil before pulling each bulb, and how proper curing helps garlic store beautifully for months.
We’ll also go back about a month to harvest the garlic scapes and look at why removing them is so important. I even found a few scapes I missed, and the difference in the garlic bulbs underneath was pretty surprising!
You’ll see:
🌱 When hardneck garlic is ready to harvest
✂️ Why garlic scapes should be removed
🧄 How to dig garlic without bruising the bulbs
🧺 Why I don’t wash freshly harvested garlic
🌬️ How I hang and cure garlic for long-term storage
🥄 What I do with undersized garlic bulbs
🌾 How our pine-needle mulch performed through the season
For curing, I leave the entire garlic plant together—the leaves, neck, roots, and bulb—and hang it in a shaded, airy location for approximately three to four weeks. Good airflow, protection from direct sunlight, and a little patience are the keys to preparing garlic for storage.
This crop started with only five pounds of seed garlic planted last fall. After making it through winter, spring growth, garlic-scape season, and our hot Ohio summer, it is incredibly rewarding to finally see the full harvest hanging in the sugar house.
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I share new farm and greenhouse content, growing tips, harvest days, market preparation, personal updates, and the quieter moments of life at Bradwood Farm that don’t always make it into my regular YouTube videos.
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#GarlicHarvest #GrowingGarlic #HomegrownPassion
00:00 Garlic harvest day in Ohio
00:59 The complete garlic story
01:31 How I safely dig garlic
02:18 Pulling the first garlic bulb
03:19 Why removing garlic scapes matters
03:59 Harvesting garlic scapes
07:26 One month later
08:26 Back to garlic harvest day
08:44 How to know garlic is ready
09:55 Why I don’t wash harvested garlic
10:50 What happens when you miss a scape
11:36 Preparing the garlic for curing
11:59 The next day
12:09 Curing garlic in the sugar house
12:46 How I hang garlic to cure
13:47 How long garlic needs to cure
15:05 Nine months from planting to harvest
🧄 Have you harvested your garlic yet this season?
I always love that first moment when the bulb comes out of the ground and I finally get to see what’s been growing underneath all these months. This year, I even found a few smaller bulbs where I missed the scapes, which was such a good reminder of why removing them matters.
I’d love to know what kind of garlic you’re growing, when you planted it, and how your harvest turned out!
And if you enjoy the quieter farm moments, greenhouse projects, harvest days, and behind-the-scenes updates, you can spend a little more time with me on Patreon here:
https://www.patreon.com/homegrownpassion
Thank you so much for watching and spending part of your day with me here at Bradwood Farm. ❤
I remember the video from last fall. Isn’t there something about a mystery bulb on the corner? The soil is amazing. I tell you what…Dracula ain’t coming by with all the garlic. Such a cool technique to let the garlic dry out. I have not grown garlic so this is all new to me. I hope you are surviving the heat wave. Be safe and cool out there!
I forgot about that garlic bulb…. oh shoot. You have to grow some… its so easy and fun and its amazing cooking the fresh garlic. So much better that store bought. ❤️
@HomegrownPassion Love me some garlic raw, sliced, diced, melted and otherwise. I will indeed have to try and grow them.
Beautiful garlic. I always enjoy the garlic harvest time. My season here in NC sees a November planting and a late May/early June harvest. This year was a slight disappointment as a new hardneck variety I tried did poorly. I’ve now tried 3 different hardneck varieties and none did well for me here. I’ll stick with my tried and true Sicilian softneck variety. I wish I had a location like your sugar shack for curing! It was nice to see a video from you again!
It’s so interesting to hear how different garlic varieties perform in your climate, and I’m glad you’re sticking with what works best for you! 😊Always appreciate your comments my friend and happy you enjoyed the video. ❤️
Garlic snape pesto sounds delicious. Recipe, please
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Been waiting for this video! Opposite story to @loulauer here – I went for mainly softneck varieties this season in our corner of north-east Scotland, lifted half of them on Friday and was a little disappointed – a few too many “little guys” 😢. They’ll all get used though.Already choosing my varieties for November planting, a mix of hard and soft. Such a low-maintenance crop, and store easily- I have just finished using up the crop I lifted in August ’25 and they hadn’t lost too much flavour.
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