Sorry if I misunderstand but it is the individual cloves you dry, not the whole head, the bulb. And yes they must be peeled first. But peeling garlic cloves takes more than just rubbing them with the fingers.

Here are the instructions from NCHFP:

DRYING GARLIC
Dry only fresh, firm garlic cloves with no bruises.
To prepare, separate and peel the cloves. Cut in
half lengthwise . No additional predrying treatment is necessary. Dry at 140 degrees F for 2 hours and then reduce heat to hours, then reduce heat to 130 degrees until completely dry or crisp.

PEELING GARLIC CLOVES
Peeling whole cloves requires that the papery skin be removed without cutting into the clove. If the garlic is going to be chopped or sliced, the skin can be removed by pressing the clove with the flat of a knife until the clove and skin crack. The skin can then be easily removed.

You can also peel cloves with a thin very sharp knife by thinly slicing off the hard base of the clove. The rest of the covering is then easily removed.

Hope this helps.

Dave

Do you mean drying them as in dehydrating them or drying them as in letting them cure for storage? If the former then follow digdirt's directions. If you mean drying them out so they can be store as whole bulbs, then no, a little dirt will not hurt them. Let them cure a couple of weeks and the dirt should come right off.

Also, when you dig the garlic, if you pull the lower leaves straight down over the bulb, the dirty skin over the bulb will peel off leaving clean bulbs.

I meant drying them as in letting them cure for storage - thanks for all your answers; very helpful!

Okay, so I was primarily talking about curing the heads for storage, but since about 8 of the heads I dug up had clove separation starting, and the literature says they won't store well, I am separating the rest of the cloves & preparing to dry them - thanks, Dave!

If you have some bulbs separating, you might try what I did last year and will do again this time. I cured quite a few whole heads too. I separated and peeled the cloves, then put them in a roaster with olive oil. After they were kinda mushy, I smashed them with a fork and froze batches in ice cube trays or small baggies. I had a huge crop last year and so did some experimenting. I did another huge batch roasted with some onions, then pureed and froze as above. It was wonderful to have on hand for stir fry, sauces, etc. Lori