When you're curing garlic it takes up to 2 weeks to fully cure the garlic.
To cure garlic hang the strings of garlic out of direct light where it is warm with good air circulation.
The ideal temperature to cure garlic is a temperature of 80 F is ideal and two weeks drying time is ideal as well.
If you don't cure the garlic for at least 2 weeks it won't be cured properly.
When you cure garlic the energy from the leaves goes into the bulbs as they dry.
You don't have to cure garlic before eating the garlic and you can eat garlic directly from the ground after you pick it.
But a lot of people cure garlic before eating it but it's not a requirement to do so.
I've eaten garlic directly from the ground.