Wait, wasn't I supposed to harvest this when it was only half brown? Well, it turned brown in a hurry, so I figured it would still be okay. The danger of leaving garlic in the ground too long is that the heads will split. I think the garlic would still be edible, it just wouldn't keep. I have only 7 (was supposed to be six, but one clove must have planted itself) heads of garlic here in my first, experimental, garlic bed, so I'm not planning to store them.
Out they come!
I brushed off the dirt and set them in a shady spot in the porch to dry. I set aside the best-looking one to plant again in the fall, and chose three to prepare immediately. I had an hour or so until a friend's cookout, and I knew exactly what I would contribute: roasted garlic spread with a baguette.
I peeled off the outer (dirty) layer of skin, making sure I left enough to keep the head together. I cut the tops off, low enough to expose the cloves.
I drizzled olive oil over the tops and wrapped each clove in a double-thickness of aluminum foil.
Roasted in a 375-degree oven for about 45 minutes. Here's what a head of roasted garlic looks like (I've already split it apart):
Pretty much like a raw head, but a pretty golden color. It's deceiving, though, because those cloves go to mush at the slightest touch. I like to see how may cloves I can extract whole, though one can just squeeze the garlic out of the head.
I mushed up this garlic and mixed it with olive oil and freshly grated parmesan.
I took it to the cookout with the baguette. It was a hit!
Yum! That's a great idea. I'll be harvesting garlic soon too.
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