I know this is off-topic, but today we harvested our garlic. This is always one of may favorite days of the gardening year. The smell of garlic is on everything and I don’t mind. This year’s crop included hardneck and softneck varieties from Asheville’s Sow True. I usually only grow softneck, so the hardback addition this year was a bit of an experiment. It worked out well. The hardneck plants yielded slightly smaller bulbs, but the flavor is very nice – hot but not too hot, and, well, deeply garlicy.

The hardneck also provided scapes earlier this spring. We sauté’d them. I’ll definitely be looking forward to them again next year. And I’ll have better recipes ready.

The harvest is now hanging in the guest bathtub to dry. For the next month, that will be my favorite room in the house.

I think we should have enough to make it through the year again. I understand hardback doesn’t keep as long as softneck, so we’ll have to eat it first. And then it will be fall and time to plant again.

If you’ve never grown your own garlic, you should try. It’s easy to grow, and the flavor of homegrown is some much better than store-bought, like tomatoes or cucumbers. If you’re in NC or the Southeast, check out Sow True’s offerings. I’ve had great results with their garlic.

Now, back to pottery…