The cure

This afternoon's big project was harvesting the farm's entire crop of garlic, which was planted last fall. The time has come to cure it all! Garlic can be eaten fresh directly out of the ground, though obviously there is much advantage to curing it, or allowing it to dry out. No need to worry about occupying space in the fields, or getting it out of the ground before it bolts and degrades. Once cured, it will last a very long time.

In order to cure garlic, it need only be left out in the open away from direct sunlight for several weeks--then it's good to go. So once we had pulled all the hundreds of stalks out of the ground, we laid them out on mesh-covered tables under the shade of some of the orchard trees. This is Caroline again. I thought she looked very elegant doing this.