My ceramic garlic keeper sits on a shelf on my frig door - that prolongs the life of the whole head of garlic. When I harvest my home grown garlic, I put them in mesh bags & hang them in a cool dark place with air circulation before they go in the frig.

Oh thanks. I wouldn't have hung them first! I will put my keeper in the fridge. I'm so excited. It will be my first garlic harvest!

Make sure your garlic is well-cured or it won't store as long. I spread mine out on my porch for a week or so until it's good and dry, then brush off the dirt, snip off the stems and store them in a basket in my pantry (which stays refrigerator cold Oct.-Mar.). There are still a few bulbs left. I've been experimenting, trying to find varieties that store well. I sort of went off the deep end last fall and planted 27 kinds.

If you have hardneck garlic, the loopy scapes make really good pesto....mmmmm....

Also, any garlic you are buying now is likely to be last season's, so of course it's trying to sprout.

I did some extra research on curing them. I didn't read up to a week though. Good to get all the info I can. I did one variety - Music and it is a hardneck. I hear about scapes a lot but will have to google what exactly I am looking for and when to cut it. Do you get them when you dig up the garlic itself? Can I get your pesto recipe Katiec - please - and 27 varieties Wow.

Cookie, you'll know the scapes...it's the flower stem and it loops in a circle. If you cut them before they form flowers, the bulbs will be bigger. They taste like garlic like green onions taste like onions (if that made sense).

I don't really use a recipe...any old pesto recipe will do, just sub the scapes for basil. I think I used pine nuts, olive oil, parmesan, S&P. Oh, and you will need breath mints, hehe.