It’s that time of year when we gather up the harvest for the winter. People around the country are canning, freezing and dehydrating to get their harvest stored. I now have 10 pounds of fresh garlic that I need to preserve until the next fall harvest.
Ten Pounds of garlic equals about 75 heads and 600 cloves! That’s about 50 cloves per month or 1.5 per day.
1. Chop the cloves and refrigerate in olive oil.
2. Root cellar storage in a mesh bag will extend the season many months. Garlic stores like onions. If you have grown your own you can dry and braid them together. In fact, if you keep them in an airy, cool, dry and dark place, they will store until next harvest. This method also keeps them from sprouting.
3. Drying garlic couldn’t be simpler by using an oven or dehydrator. Be prepared for a fragrant house – then, choose firm, fresh cloves with no sign of bruising. Peel the cloves and cut them in half lengthwise. Dehydrating works best if you have uniform sizes so each piece will dry at the same rate. Garlic should be dried at 125 degrees until crisp. This may take up to two days at this low temperature. You can store the dried pieces in canning jars.
4. Grind dried garlic and make garlic powder. Once the pieces are completely dry use a coffee grinder and process until it is the consistence you want.
5. Pickle your Garlic in vinegar with these easy instructions from Growing a Greener World. Pickled garlic can be used just like fresh and will last at least a year once you have processed them in a water bath canner. Plus, as an added bonus, once you have eaten the garlic you can use the garlic flavored brine in salad dressings!
6. Freezing you garlic is probably the easiest method of all. Either follow directions in step number 1 above and freeze with oil or just pop the whole garlic bulb, unpeeled, into a paper bag and remove cloves as needed.
