Today, garlic and onions that we had sowed last fall came to full fruition and were ready for a summer harvest. After carefully—and somewhat ceremoniously ('cause we're nerdy like that)—digging the little bulbs from their south-facing beds in the front yard (and one less successful barrel-full of onions in the back), we laid each one in the sun to cure.* In their place we planted brussels sprouts, rutabaga, parsnips, turnips, and beets to overwinter.

*In retrospect, laying garlic and onions directly in the sun isn't the best method for curing. Turns out that if the sun is too hot, the bulbs essentially get roasted and end up rotting during storage (which sadly happened to us the year we tried that method). A better way to cure your allium crop is to hang the harvested bulbs by their stems in a warm, dark place with decent air flow, and let them cure for about 3 weeks—then braid them all together and hang them somewhere in your kitchen for convenient use throughout the year.