I'm down to my last three bulbs of garlic from last year's crop, and they are wizened up, shrunken, dry, rubbery and sprouting.
But I don't have to deal with them, because my fresh garlic is in. Yee ha.
I shoulda harvested my garlic before that four and a half inches of rain fell. But luckily I planted three varieties, and two made out exceedingly well. The third will need to be used up first, because it split upon curing.
The 'splitters' are in the box on the floor. (The shallots on the top look nice this year as well.)
The two varieties that were so good this year have the biggest cloves I've ever seen. I can only assume they loved 1. being planted very early in the fall, 2. in well dug compost and steer manure amended garden soil. And whatever weird weather we've had this year must have suited them to a tee.
The third variety, the splitters, were nice sized, but nothing too unusual. Except for the splitting. I'll save the best cloves out and replant along with the best of my other varieties. Who knows what the weather will do next year... those might be the wonder garlic next year.
I've read that a large majority of the garlic in grocery stores is shipped all the way from China.
Why?
