July 1, 2025 • 35 mins
Your summer garlic and onion harvest are ready, now what? You spent a lot of time and energy getting this crop to maturity, let’s not waste that effort by allowing them to go soft before we get to use them.
Today on Just Grow Something, I give expert tips for harvesting, curing, and storing garlic and onions to keep them fresh through next spring. Learn how to recognize when your crops are ready, the best techniques for drying and storing, and how to avoid spoilage. Plus, I share alternative preservation methods like freezing and dehydrating. Whether you're new to gardening or a seasoned grower, this episode will help you get the most from your harvest.
What You’ll Learn:
- When and how to harvest garlic and onions
- Ideal curing conditions and duration
- How to store for short- and long-term freshness
- Alternative storage techniques (oil, freezing, dehydration)
- The best types for long-term storage
Let’s dig in!
Save 20% on your new own-root rose plant at Heirloom Roses with code JUSTGROW https://heirloomroses.com
References and Resources:
Garlic episodes: https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/search/garlic
Onion episodes: https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/search/onion
Loveland Acres Farm: lovelandacresfarm.org
Get 10% off and FREE shipping on my favoriteraised planters at Planter Box Direct using code JUSTGROW10: https://planterboxdirect.com/?ref=593
Find the show notes at:
https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/episode/how-to-harvest-cure-and-store-garlic-and-onions-ep-256
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Your summer garlic and onion harvest can last you through the
spring of next year if you give it the attention and the time
that it needs right now. Onions and garlic are staples in
many kitchens, so it only makes sense to grow them ourselves in
the home garden. But how do we make them last?
If you've had even mild success with your garlic or your onion
(00:22):
crops this year, there are a fewsteps to take to be sure that
they don't get soft or moldy before you get the chance to use
them up. So today on Just Grow Something,
we're talking proper harvest techniques, curing, and how to
store your garlic and onions. So the hard work that you put in
and the long wait from when you planted them to when they mature
(00:44):
is worth your while. We want to make sure those
goodies stay firm and intact allthe way through until it's time
to harvest again next year or until we eat them all, whichever
comes first. Let's dig in.
Hey, I'm Karen and what started as a small backyard garden 20
years ago turned into a lifelongpassion for growing food.
Now as a market farmer and horticulturist, I want to help
(01:07):
you do the same. On this podcast, I am your
friend in the garden teaching evidence based techniques to
help you grow your favorites andbuild confidence in your own
garden space. So grab your garden journal and
a cup of coffee and get ready tojust grow something.
So thank you to all of you who have reached out to let me know
(01:27):
that you donated to Loveland Acres Farm after last week's
episode. I truly, truly appreciate you
and I hope that we made a littlebit of an impact for Scarlett
and the work that she's doing upthere in Wisconsin.
It's never too late to contribute to the cause by going
to lovelandacrefarms.org and heading to her shop to make a
(01:48):
purchase or give a little something towards introducing
children with disabilities to growing food and connecting with
farm animals while fighting racism at the same time.
So we are in full harvest mode here.
The garlic has already come out,the onions are starting probably
(02:09):
this week it looks like. So now seemed like a perfect
time to talk about when and how to harvest these guys out of our
gardens and what to do with themafter we pull them.
It's not enough to get them grown and harvested.
There are some special considerations for long term
storage, especially if one Once you look at your harvest, you
(02:33):
realize that yeah, you may have grown enough to feed a small
army. It's easy to get carried away
with garlic and onions, and that's OK.
As long as we're using them, it's not a problem.
So let's start by talking about when and how to harvest them.
With garlic, the timing is when you see the garlic and roughly
(02:57):
half of the leaves are yellow orstarting to turn brown.
And if you're growing a soft neck variety, the likely are
starting to flop over at the neck.
So this is going to depend on the variety that you're growing
and where you are growing. For some of you, this could be
as early as the beginning of June.
(03:18):
For us here, we started to see the first few soft necks start
to sort of flop over about 10 days to two weeks or so ago, so
around the middle of June. And then the majority of them
looked like they were ready to go just this past week.
And so we went ahead and finished digging all of them.
This went for our hard neck also, but the hard neck are a
(03:41):
little bit different. Generally speaking, when you see
that first scape come up and if you don't know what the scape
is, it is basically the floral stem that starts to come out of
the center of the hard neck garlic and you'll see a tiny
little what looks like a flour bloom on the end of it.
Those should be cut off and you can use those garlic scapes are
(04:03):
fantastic to eat. But generally speaking, if you
are growing those hard necks, about 3 to 4 weeks later is when
your hard neck variety will be ready to harvest.
For me, my hard neck generally are always much smaller than the
soft neck and they are usually ready right around the same
(04:24):
time. And so again with the hard neck,
I don't usually experience any of that sort of flopping over
like what you see with the soft neck.
The soft neck are going to act very similar to what we see in
our onions, and we'll talk aboutthat here in a second.
For some of you, this may not happen until July or into
August, depending on where you are.
(04:44):
And this is making the assumption that all of this
garlic was planted in the fall. If you plant garlic in the
spring, when it's going to be ready is really going to depend
a lot on your climate and whether or not that garlic was
able to be vernalized, meaning you were able to chill it before
you planted it. So there's a kind of a little
(05:06):
bit of a nuance there when you're talking about spring
planted garlic. But for the fall planted garlic,
it usually anywhere between the beginning of June and the middle
of August is usually where you'll see these being ready.
The heads of garlic should actually be left in the ground
as long as possible in order to be able to kind of get that
maximum bulb size. Your garlic bulbs will actually
(05:29):
double in just that very end stage of growth in the final few
weeks, but we don't want them tobe in the ground for so long
that the cloves begin to separate because those bulbs are
not going to be able to be stored very well.
So that would be something whereif you dig up your bulbs and you
(05:49):
start to see that they are kind of separating away from the
center, those are the ones that you are going to want to use
first or find an alternate storage method.
And we'll talk about that towards the end of the episode.
I actually had this problem lastseason and it was mainly in my
hard neck garlic. And I don't remember exactly
why. I would have to go back and look
(06:10):
in my garden journal to see whatit was that caused us to harvest
that garlic late and for those bulbs to already be sort of
separating the cloves to be separating in those bulbs.
But I, I will say that they werenot candidates for long term
storage. So those were, those were eaten
first. So it's, it's a little bit of a,
(06:31):
a guessing game. You kind of have to keep an eye
on them because once they start to come ready, they all kind of
come ready at once and you need to get them out of the ground.
The easiest way and the most effective way to do this is to
just loosen the soil up either with, you know, a hand trowel or
a, a fork of some sort to be able to get down underneath
(06:53):
those roots and gently lift the bulbs up out of the soil.
We want to avoid pulling on the garlic by the neck because that
could actually damage that neck and we want those to be intact
while we are curing them. So get down low and then pop
them up out of the soil. That is the best way to go ahead
(07:15):
and get them out. Now for your onions, we want to
wait until most of the tops havefallen over.
And once that happens, those bulbs are mature.
So it quite literally they will sort of like their neck will
just sort of break and flop overand that's when you know they're
ready to pull. You'll be able to know this is
(07:35):
coming. I mean, you should be able to
kind of keep an eye on your on your onions as they're
developing and you should be able to see those bulbs forming.
They shouldn't be so deep in theground that you can't see this
happening because that's going to restrict the growth.
And once those tops fall over, those bulbs are not going to get
any bigger. So don't wait thinking, Oh well,
(07:56):
it's not the right size yet. There is going to not going to
be any additional growth there. The same thing goes as a side
note when your onions bolt. So if your onions start to put
up a flower stalk before you think they are ready to harvest,
that is usually an indicator of a couple of different things.
The weather patterns have probably been a little bit funky
(08:19):
and it has caused them to be a little bit stressed.
Or maybe your soil has compactedaround them and that is causing
the bulb to be stressed. In any case, it is feeling like
it needs to reproduce and so it's going to send that flower
stock up and this is not going to be a candidate number one for
long term storage #2 those bulbsaren't going to get any bigger
(08:43):
either. So you have two options at that
point when they start to bolt. Number one is just pull the
whole onion. You can use it like what we
consider a spring onion, right? So you can use the tops like
green onions. You can use the bottom like a
regular onion matter how big it has developed and you know, and
then you're good to go. That's fine if you have too many
(09:04):
of them that are bolting, and sometimes in some seasons this
will happen. Then you can just pop the seed
top or the flower off the top ofwhere that stem is bolting and
leave them in the ground for a little while until you get to
them. They're not going to get any
bigger, but they're also, you know, not going to rot because
(09:26):
you had to harvest them and thenyou didn't get around to eating
them, right. So it gives you a little bit of
a sort of in the garden storage for a couple of weeks.
Eventually they are going to have to come out because if
they're just sitting there and they're not really growing, then
they're trying to expend energy to maybe put up more flower
stalks, which generally isn't going to happen.
So it's just, it's a, it's kind of a stasis at that point and
(09:48):
they can't sit in that conditionfor too long in, in either case,
when you pull those out, they those need to be used right
away. Those are not something that can
store because the center part ofthat bulb of the onion that has
now sprouted, you got access to water getting in there from the
top of that flower stalk, especially if you've topped that
(10:11):
flower off. It's also using or has been
trying to use the energy from within that that bulb to do that
flowering process. And so that's going to cause the
center of it to get soft. So use those right away.
The harvesting of your onions ispretty much the same way as what
you would do with your garlic. We want to dig with a fork or
(10:32):
with a trial of some sort. You can give them a little
gentle pull because in the best case scenario, in most
instances, those onion bulbs should be slightly popped up out
of the ground. Sometimes it happens, especially
if you are planting fall sets orsets in the fall to overwinter
to come up in the spring like wedo.
Depending on what your weather conditions were over the winter
(10:55):
time, it's possible that these guys have settled down a little
bit. That is 1 sort of caveat to
planting fall planted onions andharvesting them in the spring.
And I did have several instancesof that and those ones actually
did bolt and so they got pulled early.
So just like with our garlic, wedon't want to be grabbing the
top and trying to yank it out because that can cause damage.
(11:17):
We we want those tops on for thecuring process.
So a gentle wiggle can usually get them out if they are if they
are up out of the soil well enough or again getting down
there with a trowel or a fork tokind of pop it up.
It's also a good idea too with both onions and garlic.
If you can wait for like a dry weather period to harvest these
(11:39):
rather when you then when you'vejust recently had a rain or it's
very wet out. This is just going to help you
to reduce those disease risks for while you are curing them.
As a new rosebush Mama, I have been keeping an eye out for
pests and diseases in my plant from heirloom roses as it goes
through its first full season here.
(12:00):
The weather has been crazy wet and the humidity is high and
that's usually the perfect breeding ground for things like
black spot. And surprisingly, I haven't seen
any problems thus far. But if this is something that
you've struggled with, it helps to be sure that we are watering
at the base of the plant to keepthe foliage dry, removing any
infected leaves so the fungus doesn't spread, and don't
(12:22):
compost those. Please get rid of them.
And be sure to clean our prunersbetween cuttings to avoid
spreading it to other plants. And I've also been watching out
for aphids, which are notoriously attracted to roses,
which I did see early on on my plant, but I knocked them down
with a spray from the hose and waited for the ladybugs to come
in and do their job, which they did.
(12:42):
But there are sprays that you can use and beneficial insects
that you can purchase if you have a lot of roses and a lot of
these issues. In fact, heirloomroses.com has a
selection of recommended treatment items on their
website, including fungicides, natural insecticides, and even a
beneficial insect subscription. They truly do care about the
fate of your roses and they are ready to help.
(13:05):
It is not too late to get your own beautiful rose Bush settled
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I have bookmarked several new varieties to add to my garden
this year because I've been so impressed with how healthy and
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(13:25):
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The link is in the show notes. So let's talk about the curing.
What are we doing when we are curing an onion or a garlic?
The curing is just the process of drying out those skins and
(13:50):
the necks on the garlic or the onion so that those bulbs are
sealed, which is going to reducethe ability of moisture being
able to get in there. And it's also going to reduce
the disease problems. So for garlic and, and really
for onions too, I mean, you could do these both the same
way. You want to kind of spread them
out either on a rack or you can hang them from their stems or
(14:16):
upside down. You want to do this in a very
warm area. So for both garlic and onions,
you're looking at between 75 and85 ish Fahrenheit.
You want to dry well ventilated area.
Now if you are somewhere where it's not super humid, you could
do this outside. OK, you can do it on a deck, you
(14:38):
could do it in a barn, you coulddo it in a shed.
So long as there is plenty of airflow and it's not super
humid, you should be OK to do itthis way.
In my area, this is not going towork very well.
There have been years where I'vebeen able to lay them out on
racks on my back deck in the shade and I had enough airflow
(14:59):
and the humidity was low enough that we would be able to dry
them out. The onions specifically, But
typically speaking, I end up taking all of my garlic and all
of my onions into our basement and I put them on the racks in
my seed starting room and I turnthe fans on and I let them just
get that really good airflow. The temperature is warm enough
(15:22):
down there during the summer time that it's it's warm enough
to be able to cure them. It does take them a little bit
longer down there because it is on the cooler side of that
temperature range. But typically, so you know,
let's put it this way, if you have those ideal temperatures,
right, it can be in that 75 to 85, it could take as little as
(15:45):
10 days for your garlic to cure,probably closer to two weeks for
your onions. In my instance, in that
condition, it generally takes melike 4 weeks for my garlic and
right around the same amount of time for my onions.
Really what you're looking for in both of these is you want the
necks to be dry, almost papery, and you want those outer skins
(16:08):
to be very, very dry. You want those heads to be nice
and tight, and you want that paper around the outside to be
nice and tight as well. You can braid either your onions
or your garlic or both and hang them and allow them to cure that
way. Just be mindful of the humidity
(16:30):
level. Make sure that you have really
good air flow going. If it's just one or two braids
and you're hanging them in your kitchen and you plan to use them
over the next, you know, severalweeks to, you know, to two
months, then maybe it's not necessary to go through this
whole drying process. As a matter of fact, if you, you
know, only grew enough of your garlic and onions for you to get
(16:50):
through them over the next four to six weeks, then you don't
have to go through this process at all.
Really. You could just, you know, cut
the stems and store them in in your refrigerator and that's
going to hold them for however long it takes you to get through
them over the next four to six weeks.
But for anything longer than that six week kind of period, I
(17:14):
absolutely recommend going through the curing process to
make sure that they're fully dryand that we, you know, keep that
disease and that moisture from infiltrating while they're in
storage. So once we have our garlic and
our onions dried, they are cured.
Now we want to trim. So you want to take your garlic
(17:34):
and snip those stems about an inch or so above the bulb, and
then we want to trim off the roots.
The same thing goes with the onions.
You want to cut that neck to about half inch to 1 inch, trim
off those roots, remove any of the outer skins that have any
kind of damage to them. We don't want to be storing
anything that is bruised or otherwise off in any way.
(17:57):
We want to brush off the soil any leftover dirt or anything
that is on our onions or your garlic.
You do not want to rinse them, though.
We don't want to invite any kindof rot to the party and that's
all getting them. What is going to do, right?
It's going to invite that rot. So don't wash them.
Just knock the soil off. And in terms of what we're going
to store, we only want to store our sort of perfect specimens.
(18:21):
OK? So if you damaged any of these
bulbs while you were pulling them out of the garden and this
happens, you know, you go to stick your trowel down in the
soil to pop them up and oops, you realize that you actually
jabbed it because it was a, a large specimen or whatever.
It's OK. That's just the ones that you're
going to eat first. Any damage or soft spots is
(18:43):
going to increase that rot risk.So we don't want to be putting
those in with the ones that we're storing because as soon as
one starts to have problems, then it's going to spread them
to the others. We don't want that.
We don't want to invite any diseases or anything in.
So only store your most perfect specimens.
How should you be storing these?So the temperature and the
(19:06):
humidity are really the most important things when it comes
to storing garlic and onions foryour garlic ambient temperature
just out in your regular household, you know,
temperatures 68 to 85, you know,Fahrenheit or whatever, they'll
keep for about one or two monthswithout any kind of special
(19:27):
consideration. Garlic is pretty Hardy that way.
But if you're looking for long term storage, so, and we're
talking like your garlic can store for four to nine months or
longer, you want them to be a bit cooler.
And I will tell you that I have experienced this first hand.
I have made braids from both my garlic and my onions, but
(19:51):
specifically my garlic to hang in my kitchen.
And again, my experience was OK,well, a couple of months, you
know, your garlic can store in alittle container with some holes
in it. You know, the cute little
ceramic, you know, garlic pots or whatever.
And there would be no problem. And so I had it hanging on my
wall. Very decoratively and figured
(20:12):
once I went through all my othergarlic OK, then I would start to
use that one last because I liked the way that it looked.
By the time I got through all ofmy other fresh garlic and went
to go use the garlic that had been hanging on the wall, they
looked like they were beautiful intact bulbs or heads of garlic,
but they were completely empty. They had shriveled within their
(20:34):
little, you know, paper casings and there was nothing left of
them. And I don't know how long it had
been that way, probably for months.
So it's still hanging on my wallbecause it still looks like a
big, beautiful braid of garlic. But there is nothing in the
inside of these things and it's been there for years.
So just know if you're going to keep these or you're going to
(20:55):
try to store these for longer than about two months or so,
you're going to want to be able to store them in a much, much
colder environment. So realistic conditions for home
storage, you're looking at, you know, between 50 and 65°F or 10
Celsius, 18 Celsius, right, witha humidity of around 50 to 60%.
(21:16):
So an open container like a meshbag or a wire basket that's
going to help with to circulate the air and keep the moisture
and the sort of odors away. So what does this look like?
A basement maybe that has that type of level of humidity and
and that temperature range. If you have a cool closet
somewhere that's kind of dark, but you can still get the
(21:37):
airflow that might work OK for you.
In commercial storage, we generally are looking at keeping
them at temperatures around 30 to 32 Fahrenheit.
So we are very close to that freezing mark and we're looking
at about 60 to 70% relative humidity and that good airflow.
We know obviously, that most home gardeners can't really
(21:57):
achieve that. So your refrigerator might end
up being the best place. You know, if you don't have a
spot in your home or in a garageor in a basement that has those
cooler temperatures with that level of humidity, then you may
decide that putting your garlic into your crisper drawer in your
(22:18):
refrigerator is the best place. I'm going to talk about a few
other alternatives to this here towards the end, but just know
if you want to store those cloves or those heads whole,
this might be the only option for you for anything longer than
about 8 weeks or so with your onions.
We're looking at cool and dry conditions and the cooler you
(22:41):
can get it, the better. So again, a, you know, unheated
garage that doesn't technically get to freezing.
So ideally we're looking at between 32 and 40°F, but we want
low humidity. We also want to avoid storing
our onions near anything that gives off ethylene.
(23:01):
So that would be apples or potatoes.
So you know those really cute, like wooden bins that have the
labels on the front of them thatused to be meant to put in your
kitchen? And 1 was labeled for potatoes
and 1 was labeled for onions. Yeah, really bad idea.
All that's going to do is make your onions go bad more quickly
(23:23):
if you're selling them near yourpotatoes.
So we want to also avoid storingour onions any place where the
temperatures are going to fluctuate really dramatically.
So you know, if you're storing them in the long term in your
kitchen, where typically it's going to get warmer when you're
cooking and then it's going to get cooler when you're not home
(23:45):
in the, in the winter time or whatever, that's probably not
the best place to be storing your onions.
So a cool basement. So if you have a basement or
even a, a root cellar that staysmuch cooler, that is a really
good place to store them long term.
Onions need that low humidity though to stay fresh.
So it likely wouldn't work real well in my basement because our
(24:08):
basement, again, we're humid here.
So even as we get into the winter time, it's still a little
bit humid down there. So not the ideal place for us to
store onions. I generally put them out in,
it's going to sound weird, but they go in my gym because our
gym is on a, a room that is likeattached to the outside of the
house and it stays cool and it stays dry out there.
(24:29):
So that's actually the best place for me to store our
onions. Just remember the low humidity
and a a cooler temperature. Now, can you store your onions
and your garlic in the same place?
Yeah. If you can sort of match that,
like 60% humidity and around 32°, then yeah, that's a good
(24:50):
place to store both your garlic and your onions.
But you may not be, you know, super accurate.
And unless you've got a hydrometer that's telling you
exactly how much humidity is in there and, you know, a
thermometer telling you what thetemperature is all the time, you
may not go to all that fuss. OK, Do your best in a cool, semi
dry area in your house. Make sure that you're storing
(25:13):
them like in mesh bags or in open bins, anything that's
breathable. Again, those braided bunches
here are going to be just fine if you've got them hanging up,
they just may not be there for the long term.
Just make sure you're avoiding anything that is sealed,
especially if it's plastic. No, like sealed plastic bags.
All that's going to do is trap the moisture.
So you know, a cool dry basementor root cellar or something
(25:34):
that's got some good ventilation.
Also some rodent control if that's an issue for you.
Your refrigerator is OK short term.
So if you can keep them in your kitchen for maybe the first two
months, right, and then we know,OK, anything beyond that, they
need better storage conditions and then you move them into your
(25:59):
refrigerator, well then that's going to probably give you at
least another month or two. So now we're at four months.
So even if you don't have that ideal storage temperature and in
environment that you need, you can still get your stuff to at
least hang on for a good four months by using a combination of
(26:20):
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(26:40):
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(27:00):
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The link is in the show notes. How long these can store is
going to be based on like their type and their variety.
(27:45):
So in terms of garlic, you know,I mentioned we grow both hard
neck and soft neck. Number one.
That's because where we live, sometimes the winters are super,
super harsh and sometimes not somuch.
So I plant both just to cover mybases because you know, hard
neck really needs that vernalization.
(28:06):
The soft neck maybe not as much,and the soft neck can not always
take as much in terms of the really severe winters, but the
hard neck can. So I grow both and that means
that they store differently too.They have different growth
habits. They have different ability to
be able to be stored. So your soft neck actually
stores the longest. These are the ones that are
(28:28):
great for braids. They generally can store between
6 and 12 months. So if I've got soft neck
varieties, I am usually finishing up using them
probably, oh, the end of March, beginning of April.
And then of course, I'm startingto harvest again in June.
So there's not too much of a gapthere.
(28:48):
In terms of my actual bulbs, thehard neck, it tends to last
maybe three to six months or so.The reason that you might choose
hard neck over soft neck is the hard neck tends to have a much
stronger flavor to it and you also get those scapes.
So if you have the the option toplant both, great.
But sometimes it may just dependon where you you're gardening as
(29:12):
to which type you have to grow. I will link to the garlic
episode in the show notes so that you can go back and figure
out maybe which one you should be growing.
The same thing goes with onions.Your very sweet and very mild
types are generally not candidates for really long term
storage. They'll store for a few months.
(29:32):
So think about, you know, your, your Walla Walla onions or your
Vidalias if you're in Vidalia County, Georgia.
Thank you very much. Those are going to be stored for
a few months. The the sugars are just a little
bit too high in those specimens for them to be able to really be
stored for too long. The really pungent onions are
your better storage types. These can last, you know, 10 to
(29:55):
12 months even longer. And so these are the ones that
are really good for that long term storage.
I will also link to all of the onion episodes as well so that
you have an idea of which ones are best for you.
You also, of course are taking into consideration where you're
growing. So whether you have to grow long
(30:15):
day, short day, or intermediate day.
And sometimes that limits the type of onion that you can grow.
So depending on where you are gardening, you know it might
limit the varieties that you areable to grow.
So just keep that in mind when you're choosing the varieties
and and trying to determine how many of each type to grow so
(30:36):
that you know which ones are going to last you longer and
which ones you're going to have to use up right away.
So just to recap, right, We wantto harvest when the tops start
to die back a little bit on our garlic, when the soft neck
starts to flop over, and then our onions, when those tops
(30:56):
start to flop over, that is whenit's time to harvest them.
We want to harvest carefully. We don't want to damage any of
these bulbs as we're popping them out.
So make sure we're digging down under those roots and we're just
kind of popping them out of the soil.
Cure them in a warm, dry, ventilated spot, a shady spot
outside. If that's where you're doing
this, your garlic may take, you know, a few, you know, 10 days
(31:21):
on up to four weeks. Your onions could take two to
four weeks. It just all depends on what
environment you are, you know, curing them in.
Once they are cured and they aredry, you want to trim them and
clean them. So cut those necks, trim off the
roots, brush off the dirt, and then store them in breathable
containers. Preferably, you know, some place
that's cool with low humidity. So for your garlic, 50 to 65°F
(31:45):
is fine them at a 60%, you know,humidity level.
Your onions definitely like a cooler 32 to 40.
If you can store your garlic in the same place as your onions at
that lower temperature, then they're going to do just fine
for you. Just remember when you put these
into storage, we want to make sure that we're going through
(32:05):
them at least once a month to check and make sure that there
aren't any bulbs that are showing signs of decay or that
are sprouting. So the ones, if they're showing
decay, get them out of there and, and you know, throw them in
the compost pile or whatever. We don't want them infecting the
other specimens. But if you have ones that start
(32:27):
to sprout, it's fine for you to go ahead and use them.
They have to be used right away.If they all are starting to show
signs of sprouting, that's the time get them out of your cool
storage wherever you've got them, and throw them into a
refrigerator to see if you can slow that process down until you
get a chance to go through and use them.
(32:47):
OK, Putting in the time at harvest to cure these guys does
pay off. OK, so your flavorful garlic and
onions can last four to six months or more, which means that
you're getting that kind of continued bang for your buck for
all that effort that you put into during the garden season.
(33:10):
Now, there are a few other ways that you can store your onions
and your garlic, particularly ifyou have some that are damaged
or you just don't have the idealstorage conditions, or maybe you
grew too many to fit your storage conditions right.
I've seen this happen. The first would be for garlic,
(33:31):
and that's to go ahead and just dice that garlic up and store it
in oil in jars in the refrigerator.
This is one of my favorite ways to store garlic.
That makes it super easy to use when I don't have the time or
the inclination to peel and chopmy garlic.
So I spend one session peeling and then chopping them in my
(33:52):
food processor. And then I pack it into a large
Mason jar, cover it with olive oil, throw the lid on, and put
it in the fridge. That's it.
And the olive oil does solidify in the fridge but it's super
easy just to scoop out what I need and let it come to room
temperature real quick before I use it.
You can also dice garlic and store it in the freezer by
(34:13):
filling your ice cube trays witha specific amount, say a
tablespoon, and then covering itwith water or oil and then
freezing it. And then you can just pop them
out of the ice cube trays and throw them in freezer bags and
store them in the freezer. And now you have a pre measured
amount for your recipes. You can do the same thing with
onions, something similar by just dicing them and storing
(34:36):
them in the freezer. Now, just know that these are
not going to be candidates for, you know, fresh use of any kind.
These are only going to be good for cooked application because
it does change the texture of the onions, but it's a good way
to sort of save some onions thatmaybe are sprouting or you have
too many or they're damaged or whatever.
The other solution for both garlic and onions is to dice it
(35:02):
up and then dehydrate them and either grind that into a powder
so that you'd have onion and garlic powder, which I do this a
lot. Or you can just leave them diced
and add them to recipes as is torehydrate while they cook.
This also means they can be usedfor like homemade onion dip mix.
(35:22):
There are lots of ways to store your garlic and your onions,
even if you don't have a space to hold them fresh.
So hopefully this episode gave you the tools that you need to
successfully harvest and cure and store your garlic and your
onions this year and the confidence to grow even more for
next year. If you like this episode, don't
forget to give the podcast a follow so you never miss an
(35:44):
episode and share the episode with someone that you think
might find it helpful. Until next time, my gardening
friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden, and we'll
talk again soon.
Your summer garlic and onion harvest can last you through the
spring of next year if you give it the attention and the time
that it needs right now. Onions and garlic are staples in
many kitchens, so it only makes sense to grow them ourselves in
the home garden. But how do we make them last?
If you've had even mild success with your garlic or your onion
(00:22):
crops this year, there are a fewsteps to take to be sure that
they don't get soft or moldy before you get the chance to use
them up. So today on Just Grow Something,
we're talking proper harvest techniques, curing, and how to
store your garlic and onions. So the hard work that you put in
and the long wait from when you planted them to when they mature
(00:44):
is worth your while. We want to make sure those
goodies stay firm and intact allthe way through until it's time
to harvest again next year or until we eat them all, whichever
comes first. Let's dig in.
Hey, I'm Karen and what started as a small backyard garden 20
years ago turned into a lifelongpassion for growing food.
Now as a market farmer and horticulturist, I want to help
(01:07):
you do the same. On this podcast, I am your
friend in the garden teaching evidence based techniques to
help you grow your favorites andbuild confidence in your own
garden space. So grab your garden journal and
a cup of coffee and get ready tojust grow something.
So thank you to all of you who have reached out to let me know
(01:27):
that you donated to Loveland Acres Farm after last week's
episode. I truly, truly appreciate you
and I hope that we made a littlebit of an impact for Scarlett
and the work that she's doing upthere in Wisconsin.
It's never too late to contribute to the cause by going
to lovelandacrefarms.org and heading to her shop to make a
(01:48):
purchase or give a little something towards introducing
children with disabilities to growing food and connecting with
farm animals while fighting racism at the same time.
So we are in full harvest mode here.
The garlic has already come out,the onions are starting probably
(02:09):
this week it looks like. So now seemed like a perfect
time to talk about when and how to harvest these guys out of our
gardens and what to do with themafter we pull them.
It's not enough to get them grown and harvested.
There are some special considerations for long term
storage, especially if one Once you look at your harvest, you
(02:33):
realize that yeah, you may have grown enough to feed a small
army. It's easy to get carried away
with garlic and onions, and that's OK.
As long as we're using them, it's not a problem.
So let's start by talking about when and how to harvest them.
With garlic, the timing is when you see the garlic and roughly
(02:57):
half of the leaves are yellow orstarting to turn brown.
And if you're growing a soft neck variety, the likely are
starting to flop over at the neck.
So this is going to depend on the variety that you're growing
and where you are growing. For some of you, this could be
as early as the beginning of June.
(03:18):
For us here, we started to see the first few soft necks start
to sort of flop over about 10 days to two weeks or so ago, so
around the middle of June. And then the majority of them
looked like they were ready to go just this past week.
And so we went ahead and finished digging all of them.
This went for our hard neck also, but the hard neck are a
(03:41):
little bit different. Generally speaking, when you see
that first scape come up and if you don't know what the scape
is, it is basically the floral stem that starts to come out of
the center of the hard neck garlic and you'll see a tiny
little what looks like a flour bloom on the end of it.
Those should be cut off and you can use those garlic scapes are
(04:03):
fantastic to eat. But generally speaking, if you
are growing those hard necks, about 3 to 4 weeks later is when
your hard neck variety will be ready to harvest.
For me, my hard neck generally are always much smaller than the
soft neck and they are usually ready right around the same
(04:24):
time. And so again with the hard neck,
I don't usually experience any of that sort of flopping over
like what you see with the soft neck.
The soft neck are going to act very similar to what we see in
our onions, and we'll talk aboutthat here in a second.
For some of you, this may not happen until July or into
August, depending on where you are.
(04:44):
And this is making the assumption that all of this
garlic was planted in the fall. If you plant garlic in the
spring, when it's going to be ready is really going to depend
a lot on your climate and whether or not that garlic was
able to be vernalized, meaning you were able to chill it before
you planted it. So there's a kind of a little
(05:06):
bit of a nuance there when you're talking about spring
planted garlic. But for the fall planted garlic,
it usually anywhere between the beginning of June and the middle
of August is usually where you'll see these being ready.
The heads of garlic should actually be left in the ground
as long as possible in order to be able to kind of get that
maximum bulb size. Your garlic bulbs will actually
(05:29):
double in just that very end stage of growth in the final few
weeks, but we don't want them tobe in the ground for so long
that the cloves begin to separate because those bulbs are
not going to be able to be stored very well.
So that would be something whereif you dig up your bulbs and you
(05:49):
start to see that they are kind of separating away from the
center, those are the ones that you are going to want to use
first or find an alternate storage method.
And we'll talk about that towards the end of the episode.
I actually had this problem lastseason and it was mainly in my
hard neck garlic. And I don't remember exactly
why. I would have to go back and look
(06:10):
in my garden journal to see whatit was that caused us to harvest
that garlic late and for those bulbs to already be sort of
separating the cloves to be separating in those bulbs.
But I, I will say that they werenot candidates for long term
storage. So those were, those were eaten
first. So it's, it's a little bit of a,
(06:31):
a guessing game. You kind of have to keep an eye
on them because once they start to come ready, they all kind of
come ready at once and you need to get them out of the ground.
The easiest way and the most effective way to do this is to
just loosen the soil up either with, you know, a hand trowel or
a, a fork of some sort to be able to get down underneath
(06:53):
those roots and gently lift the bulbs up out of the soil.
We want to avoid pulling on the garlic by the neck because that
could actually damage that neck and we want those to be intact
while we are curing them. So get down low and then pop
them up out of the soil. That is the best way to go ahead
(07:15):
and get them out. Now for your onions, we want to
wait until most of the tops havefallen over.
And once that happens, those bulbs are mature.
So it quite literally they will sort of like their neck will
just sort of break and flop overand that's when you know they're
ready to pull. You'll be able to know this is
(07:35):
coming. I mean, you should be able to
kind of keep an eye on your on your onions as they're
developing and you should be able to see those bulbs forming.
They shouldn't be so deep in theground that you can't see this
happening because that's going to restrict the growth.
And once those tops fall over, those bulbs are not going to get
any bigger. So don't wait thinking, Oh well,
(07:56):
it's not the right size yet. There is going to not going to
be any additional growth there. The same thing goes as a side
note when your onions bolt. So if your onions start to put
up a flower stalk before you think they are ready to harvest,
that is usually an indicator of a couple of different things.
The weather patterns have probably been a little bit funky
(08:19):
and it has caused them to be a little bit stressed.
Or maybe your soil has compactedaround them and that is causing
the bulb to be stressed. In any case, it is feeling like
it needs to reproduce and so it's going to send that flower
stock up and this is not going to be a candidate number one for
long term storage #2 those bulbsaren't going to get any bigger
(08:43):
either. So you have two options at that
point when they start to bolt. Number one is just pull the
whole onion. You can use it like what we
consider a spring onion, right? So you can use the tops like
green onions. You can use the bottom like a
regular onion matter how big it has developed and you know, and
then you're good to go. That's fine if you have too many
(09:04):
of them that are bolting, and sometimes in some seasons this
will happen. Then you can just pop the seed
top or the flower off the top ofwhere that stem is bolting and
leave them in the ground for a little while until you get to
them. They're not going to get any
bigger, but they're also, you know, not going to rot because
(09:26):
you had to harvest them and thenyou didn't get around to eating
them, right. So it gives you a little bit of
a sort of in the garden storage for a couple of weeks.
Eventually they are going to have to come out because if
they're just sitting there and they're not really growing, then
they're trying to expend energy to maybe put up more flower
stalks, which generally isn't going to happen.
So it's just, it's a, it's kind of a stasis at that point and
(09:48):
they can't sit in that conditionfor too long in, in either case,
when you pull those out, they those need to be used right
away. Those are not something that can
store because the center part ofthat bulb of the onion that has
now sprouted, you got access to water getting in there from the
top of that flower stalk, especially if you've topped that
(10:11):
flower off. It's also using or has been
trying to use the energy from within that that bulb to do that
flowering process. And so that's going to cause the
center of it to get soft. So use those right away.
The harvesting of your onions ispretty much the same way as what
you would do with your garlic. We want to dig with a fork or
(10:32):
with a trial of some sort. You can give them a little
gentle pull because in the best case scenario, in most
instances, those onion bulbs should be slightly popped up out
of the ground. Sometimes it happens, especially
if you are planting fall sets orsets in the fall to overwinter
to come up in the spring like wedo.
Depending on what your weather conditions were over the winter
(10:55):
time, it's possible that these guys have settled down a little
bit. That is 1 sort of caveat to
planting fall planted onions andharvesting them in the spring.
And I did have several instancesof that and those ones actually
did bolt and so they got pulled early.
So just like with our garlic, wedon't want to be grabbing the
top and trying to yank it out because that can cause damage.
(11:17):
We we want those tops on for thecuring process.
So a gentle wiggle can usually get them out if they are if they
are up out of the soil well enough or again getting down
there with a trowel or a fork tokind of pop it up.
It's also a good idea too with both onions and garlic.
If you can wait for like a dry weather period to harvest these
(11:39):
rather when you then when you'vejust recently had a rain or it's
very wet out. This is just going to help you
to reduce those disease risks for while you are curing them.
As a new rosebush Mama, I have been keeping an eye out for
pests and diseases in my plant from heirloom roses as it goes
through its first full season here.
(12:00):
The weather has been crazy wet and the humidity is high and
that's usually the perfect breeding ground for things like
black spot. And surprisingly, I haven't seen
any problems thus far. But if this is something that
you've struggled with, it helps to be sure that we are watering
at the base of the plant to keepthe foliage dry, removing any
infected leaves so the fungus doesn't spread, and don't
(12:22):
compost those. Please get rid of them.
And be sure to clean our prunersbetween cuttings to avoid
spreading it to other plants. And I've also been watching out
for aphids, which are notoriously attracted to roses,
which I did see early on on my plant, but I knocked them down
with a spray from the hose and waited for the ladybugs to come
in and do their job, which they did.
(12:42):
But there are sprays that you can use and beneficial insects
that you can purchase if you have a lot of roses and a lot of
these issues. In fact, heirloomroses.com has a
selection of recommended treatment items on their
website, including fungicides, natural insecticides, and even a
beneficial insect subscription. They truly do care about the
fate of your roses and they are ready to help.
(13:05):
It is not too late to get your own beautiful rose Bush settled
in this season by going to heirloomroses.com and using code
Just GROW to save 20% at checkout.
I have bookmarked several new varieties to add to my garden
this year because I've been so impressed with how healthy and
resilient mine is even while being grown in a container in a
(13:25):
very diseased and pest prone location. heirloomroses.com with
code Just grow at checkout to save 20% on your new rosebush.
The link is in the show notes. So let's talk about the curing.
What are we doing when we are curing an onion or a garlic?
The curing is just the process of drying out those skins and
(13:50):
the necks on the garlic or the onion so that those bulbs are
sealed, which is going to reducethe ability of moisture being
able to get in there. And it's also going to reduce
the disease problems. So for garlic and, and really
for onions too, I mean, you could do these both the same
way. You want to kind of spread them
out either on a rack or you can hang them from their stems or
(14:16):
upside down. You want to do this in a very
warm area. So for both garlic and onions,
you're looking at between 75 and85 ish Fahrenheit.
You want to dry well ventilated area.
Now if you are somewhere where it's not super humid, you could
do this outside. OK, you can do it on a deck, you
(14:38):
could do it in a barn, you coulddo it in a shed.
So long as there is plenty of airflow and it's not super
humid, you should be OK to do itthis way.
In my area, this is not going towork very well.
There have been years where I'vebeen able to lay them out on
racks on my back deck in the shade and I had enough airflow
(14:59):
and the humidity was low enough that we would be able to dry
them out. The onions specifically, But
typically speaking, I end up taking all of my garlic and all
of my onions into our basement and I put them on the racks in
my seed starting room and I turnthe fans on and I let them just
get that really good airflow. The temperature is warm enough
(15:22):
down there during the summer time that it's it's warm enough
to be able to cure them. It does take them a little bit
longer down there because it is on the cooler side of that
temperature range. But typically, so you know,
let's put it this way, if you have those ideal temperatures,
right, it can be in that 75 to 85, it could take as little as
(15:45):
10 days for your garlic to cure,probably closer to two weeks for
your onions. In my instance, in that
condition, it generally takes melike 4 weeks for my garlic and
right around the same amount of time for my onions.
Really what you're looking for in both of these is you want the
necks to be dry, almost papery, and you want those outer skins
(16:08):
to be very, very dry. You want those heads to be nice
and tight, and you want that paper around the outside to be
nice and tight as well. You can braid either your onions
or your garlic or both and hang them and allow them to cure that
way. Just be mindful of the humidity
(16:30):
level. Make sure that you have really
good air flow going. If it's just one or two braids
and you're hanging them in your kitchen and you plan to use them
over the next, you know, severalweeks to, you know, to two
months, then maybe it's not necessary to go through this
whole drying process. As a matter of fact, if you, you
know, only grew enough of your garlic and onions for you to get
(16:50):
through them over the next four to six weeks, then you don't
have to go through this process at all.
Really. You could just, you know, cut
the stems and store them in in your refrigerator and that's
going to hold them for however long it takes you to get through
them over the next four to six weeks.
But for anything longer than that six week kind of period, I
(17:14):
absolutely recommend going through the curing process to
make sure that they're fully dryand that we, you know, keep that
disease and that moisture from infiltrating while they're in
storage. So once we have our garlic and
our onions dried, they are cured.
Now we want to trim. So you want to take your garlic
(17:34):
and snip those stems about an inch or so above the bulb, and
then we want to trim off the roots.
The same thing goes with the onions.
You want to cut that neck to about half inch to 1 inch, trim
off those roots, remove any of the outer skins that have any
kind of damage to them. We don't want to be storing
anything that is bruised or otherwise off in any way.
(17:57):
We want to brush off the soil any leftover dirt or anything
that is on our onions or your garlic.
You do not want to rinse them, though.
We don't want to invite any kindof rot to the party and that's
all getting them. What is going to do, right?
It's going to invite that rot. So don't wash them.
Just knock the soil off. And in terms of what we're going
to store, we only want to store our sort of perfect specimens.
(18:21):
OK? So if you damaged any of these
bulbs while you were pulling them out of the garden and this
happens, you know, you go to stick your trowel down in the
soil to pop them up and oops, you realize that you actually
jabbed it because it was a, a large specimen or whatever.
It's OK. That's just the ones that you're
going to eat first. Any damage or soft spots is
(18:43):
going to increase that rot risk.So we don't want to be putting
those in with the ones that we're storing because as soon as
one starts to have problems, then it's going to spread them
to the others. We don't want that.
We don't want to invite any diseases or anything in.
So only store your most perfect specimens.
How should you be storing these?So the temperature and the
(19:06):
humidity are really the most important things when it comes
to storing garlic and onions foryour garlic ambient temperature
just out in your regular household, you know,
temperatures 68 to 85, you know,Fahrenheit or whatever, they'll
keep for about one or two monthswithout any kind of special
(19:27):
consideration. Garlic is pretty Hardy that way.
But if you're looking for long term storage, so, and we're
talking like your garlic can store for four to nine months or
longer, you want them to be a bit cooler.
And I will tell you that I have experienced this first hand.
I have made braids from both my garlic and my onions, but
(19:51):
specifically my garlic to hang in my kitchen.
And again, my experience was OK,well, a couple of months, you
know, your garlic can store in alittle container with some holes
in it. You know, the cute little
ceramic, you know, garlic pots or whatever.
And there would be no problem. And so I had it hanging on my
wall. Very decoratively and figured
(20:12):
once I went through all my othergarlic OK, then I would start to
use that one last because I liked the way that it looked.
By the time I got through all ofmy other fresh garlic and went
to go use the garlic that had been hanging on the wall, they
looked like they were beautiful intact bulbs or heads of garlic,
but they were completely empty. They had shriveled within their
(20:34):
little, you know, paper casings and there was nothing left of
them. And I don't know how long it had
been that way, probably for months.
So it's still hanging on my wallbecause it still looks like a
big, beautiful braid of garlic. But there is nothing in the
inside of these things and it's been there for years.
So just know if you're going to keep these or you're going to
(20:55):
try to store these for longer than about two months or so,
you're going to want to be able to store them in a much, much
colder environment. So realistic conditions for home
storage, you're looking at, you know, between 50 and 65°F or 10
Celsius, 18 Celsius, right, witha humidity of around 50 to 60%.
(21:16):
So an open container like a meshbag or a wire basket that's
going to help with to circulate the air and keep the moisture
and the sort of odors away. So what does this look like?
A basement maybe that has that type of level of humidity and
and that temperature range. If you have a cool closet
somewhere that's kind of dark, but you can still get the
(21:37):
airflow that might work OK for you.
In commercial storage, we generally are looking at keeping
them at temperatures around 30 to 32 Fahrenheit.
So we are very close to that freezing mark and we're looking
at about 60 to 70% relative humidity and that good airflow.
We know obviously, that most home gardeners can't really
(21:57):
achieve that. So your refrigerator might end
up being the best place. You know, if you don't have a
spot in your home or in a garageor in a basement that has those
cooler temperatures with that level of humidity, then you may
decide that putting your garlic into your crisper drawer in your
(22:18):
refrigerator is the best place. I'm going to talk about a few
other alternatives to this here towards the end, but just know
if you want to store those cloves or those heads whole,
this might be the only option for you for anything longer than
about 8 weeks or so with your onions.
We're looking at cool and dry conditions and the cooler you
(22:41):
can get it, the better. So again, a, you know, unheated
garage that doesn't technically get to freezing.
So ideally we're looking at between 32 and 40°F, but we want
low humidity. We also want to avoid storing
our onions near anything that gives off ethylene.
(23:01):
So that would be apples or potatoes.
So you know those really cute, like wooden bins that have the
labels on the front of them thatused to be meant to put in your
kitchen? And 1 was labeled for potatoes
and 1 was labeled for onions. Yeah, really bad idea.
All that's going to do is make your onions go bad more quickly
(23:23):
if you're selling them near yourpotatoes.
So we want to also avoid storingour onions any place where the
temperatures are going to fluctuate really dramatically.
So you know, if you're storing them in the long term in your
kitchen, where typically it's going to get warmer when you're
cooking and then it's going to get cooler when you're not home
(23:45):
in the, in the winter time or whatever, that's probably not
the best place to be storing your onions.
So a cool basement. So if you have a basement or
even a, a root cellar that staysmuch cooler, that is a really
good place to store them long term.
Onions need that low humidity though to stay fresh.
So it likely wouldn't work real well in my basement because our
(24:08):
basement, again, we're humid here.
So even as we get into the winter time, it's still a little
bit humid down there. So not the ideal place for us to
store onions. I generally put them out in,
it's going to sound weird, but they go in my gym because our
gym is on a, a room that is likeattached to the outside of the
house and it stays cool and it stays dry out there.
(24:29):
So that's actually the best place for me to store our
onions. Just remember the low humidity
and a a cooler temperature. Now, can you store your onions
and your garlic in the same place?
Yeah. If you can sort of match that,
like 60% humidity and around 32°, then yeah, that's a good
(24:50):
place to store both your garlic and your onions.
But you may not be, you know, super accurate.
And unless you've got a hydrometer that's telling you
exactly how much humidity is in there and, you know, a
thermometer telling you what thetemperature is all the time, you
may not go to all that fuss. OK, Do your best in a cool, semi
dry area in your house. Make sure that you're storing
(25:13):
them like in mesh bags or in open bins, anything that's
breathable. Again, those braided bunches
here are going to be just fine if you've got them hanging up,
they just may not be there for the long term.
Just make sure you're avoiding anything that is sealed,
especially if it's plastic. No, like sealed plastic bags.
All that's going to do is trap the moisture.
So you know, a cool dry basementor root cellar or something
(25:34):
that's got some good ventilation.
Also some rodent control if that's an issue for you.
Your refrigerator is OK short term.
So if you can keep them in your kitchen for maybe the first two
months, right, and then we know,OK, anything beyond that, they
need better storage conditions and then you move them into your
(25:59):
refrigerator, well then that's going to probably give you at
least another month or two. So now we're at four months.
So even if you don't have that ideal storage temperature and in
environment that you need, you can still get your stuff to at
least hang on for a good four months by using a combination of
(26:20):
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The link is in the show notes. How long these can store is
going to be based on like their type and their variety.
(27:45):
So in terms of garlic, you know,I mentioned we grow both hard
neck and soft neck. Number one.
That's because where we live, sometimes the winters are super,
super harsh and sometimes not somuch.
So I plant both just to cover mybases because you know, hard
neck really needs that vernalization.
(28:06):
The soft neck maybe not as much,and the soft neck can not always
take as much in terms of the really severe winters, but the
hard neck can. So I grow both and that means
that they store differently too.They have different growth
habits. They have different ability to
be able to be stored. So your soft neck actually
stores the longest. These are the ones that are
(28:28):
great for braids. They generally can store between
6 and 12 months. So if I've got soft neck
varieties, I am usually finishing up using them
probably, oh, the end of March, beginning of April.
And then of course, I'm startingto harvest again in June.
So there's not too much of a gapthere.
(28:48):
In terms of my actual bulbs, thehard neck, it tends to last
maybe three to six months or so.The reason that you might choose
hard neck over soft neck is the hard neck tends to have a much
stronger flavor to it and you also get those scapes.
So if you have the the option toplant both, great.
But sometimes it may just dependon where you you're gardening as
(29:12):
to which type you have to grow. I will link to the garlic
episode in the show notes so that you can go back and figure
out maybe which one you should be growing.
The same thing goes with onions.Your very sweet and very mild
types are generally not candidates for really long term
storage. They'll store for a few months.
(29:32):
So think about, you know, your, your Walla Walla onions or your
Vidalias if you're in Vidalia County, Georgia.
Thank you very much. Those are going to be stored for
a few months. The the sugars are just a little
bit too high in those specimens for them to be able to really be
stored for too long. The really pungent onions are
your better storage types. These can last, you know, 10 to
(29:55):
12 months even longer. And so these are the ones that
are really good for that long term storage.
I will also link to all of the onion episodes as well so that
you have an idea of which ones are best for you.
You also, of course are taking into consideration where you're
growing. So whether you have to grow long
(30:15):
day, short day, or intermediate day.
And sometimes that limits the type of onion that you can grow.
So depending on where you are gardening, you know it might
limit the varieties that you areable to grow.
So just keep that in mind when you're choosing the varieties
and and trying to determine how many of each type to grow so
(30:36):
that you know which ones are going to last you longer and
which ones you're going to have to use up right away.
So just to recap, right, We wantto harvest when the tops start
to die back a little bit on our garlic, when the soft neck
starts to flop over, and then our onions, when those tops
(30:56):
start to flop over, that is whenit's time to harvest them.
We want to harvest carefully. We don't want to damage any of
these bulbs as we're popping them out.
So make sure we're digging down under those roots and we're just
kind of popping them out of the soil.
Cure them in a warm, dry, ventilated spot, a shady spot
outside. If that's where you're doing
this, your garlic may take, you know, a few, you know, 10 days
(31:21):
on up to four weeks. Your onions could take two to
four weeks. It just all depends on what
environment you are, you know, curing them in.
Once they are cured and they aredry, you want to trim them and
clean them. So cut those necks, trim off the
roots, brush off the dirt, and then store them in breathable
containers. Preferably, you know, some place
that's cool with low humidity. So for your garlic, 50 to 65°F
(31:45):
is fine them at a 60%, you know,humidity level.
Your onions definitely like a cooler 32 to 40.
If you can store your garlic in the same place as your onions at
that lower temperature, then they're going to do just fine
for you. Just remember when you put these
into storage, we want to make sure that we're going through
(32:05):
them at least once a month to check and make sure that there
aren't any bulbs that are showing signs of decay or that
are sprouting. So the ones, if they're showing
decay, get them out of there and, and you know, throw them in
the compost pile or whatever. We don't want them infecting the
other specimens. But if you have ones that start
(32:27):
to sprout, it's fine for you to go ahead and use them.
They have to be used right away.If they all are starting to show
signs of sprouting, that's the time get them out of your cool
storage wherever you've got them, and throw them into a
refrigerator to see if you can slow that process down until you
get a chance to go through and use them.
(32:47):
OK, Putting in the time at harvest to cure these guys does
pay off. OK, so your flavorful garlic and
onions can last four to six months or more, which means that
you're getting that kind of continued bang for your buck for
all that effort that you put into during the garden season.
(33:10):
Now, there are a few other ways that you can store your onions
and your garlic, particularly ifyou have some that are damaged
or you just don't have the idealstorage conditions, or maybe you
grew too many to fit your storage conditions right.
I've seen this happen. The first would be for garlic,
(33:31):
and that's to go ahead and just dice that garlic up and store it
in oil in jars in the refrigerator.
This is one of my favorite ways to store garlic.
That makes it super easy to use when I don't have the time or
the inclination to peel and chopmy garlic.
So I spend one session peeling and then chopping them in my
(33:52):
food processor. And then I pack it into a large
Mason jar, cover it with olive oil, throw the lid on, and put
it in the fridge. That's it.
And the olive oil does solidify in the fridge but it's super
easy just to scoop out what I need and let it come to room
temperature real quick before I use it.
You can also dice garlic and store it in the freezer by
(34:13):
filling your ice cube trays witha specific amount, say a
tablespoon, and then covering itwith water or oil and then
freezing it. And then you can just pop them
out of the ice cube trays and throw them in freezer bags and
store them in the freezer. And now you have a pre measured
amount for your recipes. You can do the same thing with
onions, something similar by just dicing them and storing
(34:36):
them in the freezer. Now, just know that these are
not going to be candidates for, you know, fresh use of any kind.
These are only going to be good for cooked application because
it does change the texture of the onions, but it's a good way
to sort of save some onions thatmaybe are sprouting or you have
too many or they're damaged or whatever.
The other solution for both garlic and onions is to dice it
(35:02):
up and then dehydrate them and either grind that into a powder
so that you'd have onion and garlic powder, which I do this a
lot. Or you can just leave them diced
and add them to recipes as is torehydrate while they cook.
This also means they can be usedfor like homemade onion dip mix.
(35:22):
There are lots of ways to store your garlic and your onions,
even if you don't have a space to hold them fresh.
So hopefully this episode gave you the tools that you need to
successfully harvest and cure and store your garlic and your
onions this year and the confidence to grow even more for
next year. If you like this episode, don't
forget to give the podcast a follow so you never miss an
(35:44):
episode and share the episode with someone that you think
might find it helpful. Until next time, my gardening
friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden, and we'll
talk again soon.
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