We got a gift of hard neck garlic last fall and planted the cloves.
Now we have a very nice looking stand of garlic tasting leaves.
When do we harvest these things ?
We harvest ours as we need it for recipes and leave the rest on the ground so they can continue to grow and multiply.
Harvest garlic when about half the leaves have turned brown.
Here in Zone 4b, we usually harvest the last week of July. Be gentle, don’t bruise them. Let them dry in the shade for a few days.
When about 1/3 to 1/2 of the leaves are brown, pop them out of the ground. Do not pull them up. Gently rub clumps of dirt off, but don’t disturb the wrappers. Let them dry a day or two and then gently remove more dirt, especially from the roots. Keep doing thus every couple of days until the leaves are dried out. At that point you can trim the roots and tear the dried leaves off from the main stalk. Then you can store them. At any point you can eat them.
Hardneck garlic will send out scapes that will curl a couple of times and then straighten out. After the scapes have curled once, snip them off and cook with them. We crave garlic scape soup: http://otherpeoplesfood.blogspot.com/2007/06/garlic-scape-soup.html