[mrpotatohead]

lifted my row of garlic half an hour ago. not many have classic clove shapes, many seem to be roundish and separate, not tightly joined. first time growing. did i lift too soon?

[savbo]

if they're separate (i.e. split) that can be lifting too late... one of my varieties did this...though to be fair the catalogue did warn about it...

sav

[fatcat1955]

I find it best to lift garlic when the leaves begin to turn yellow,

[chrissie B]

mine were abit small not used any yet
chrissie b

[shoozie]

Had a few of these bulbs myself this year potatohead - I plan on using these first - in fact used a couple yesterday.  Lifted the garlic 2 weeks ago, which was a real surprise as normally it would be August 

[kermit]

Same here. About 10% of mine were like that. Still totally useable. The advice seems to be to eat them 1st but I've noticed they are beginning to "paper" over just like the others so might be ok. 1st time this has  happened to me. And if anything I've lifted earlier than in prior years. So I'm putting it down to the weird weather, in particular that v warm late march. If you think about it, I planted in November, they then get a load of heat in late match, think it's summer, then it's v cool and they think it's autumn. That's my scientific analysis anyway!

So pull them, eat them, store them, and cross your fingers!

[peapod]

Make sure they are stored in the cool and the dark.  I made the mistake with my garlic (that developed exactly like this) was just stored in a kitchen cupboard.  I cane to use it and there was nothing but paper and thick skins.

I would chop and freeze in ice cubes if I was cropping this again. It may numb the flavour somewhat, but it would still be useable.

[Trillium]

I put a pile of peeled cloves in the food processor with a pound of butter and let 'er rip. The resulting garlic butter was eye-watering to say the least  Had to triple wrap it for the freezer to protect everything else. I think next time I'll use less than half the amount of garlic to a pound of butter.

As for lifting time, around now would be the usual for many varieties. If you leave them until Sept then they'll start to root and you'll lose the lot. I always wait until the leaves start to yellow and then pull. Once the yellowing begins, there's no further growth.