Curing is the process of letting your garlic dry down in preparation for long-term storage. Curing and storing garlic allows you to enjoy the flavor of your summer harvest well into winter.
01.
First, determine whether your garlic is ready to harvest. Garlic stops growing once the soil temperature reaches 90°F so if you have a hot, early summer, your garlic will mature faster (though it’ll also have smaller bulbs).
02.
Once you’ve pulled all the bulbs out of the soil, lay them out one by one on an elevated surface (like a large table or shelving rack) that gets filtered or indirect light. This could be under a tree, on a covered porch, or in a well-ventilated garage.
There’s no need to clean off all that dirt for now—you’ll tidy them up when you trim them.
If you don’t have a table to spare, you can DIY one out of 1×6 planks (or fence boards) laid across two sawhorses.
If you’re short on space, you can cure your garlic vertically by gathering the garlic into bunches, tying the leaves together with twine, and hanging them from their stems to dry.