How to Harvest, Store And Pickle Garlic

In this posting, I'll describe when to harvest garlic and the easiest, and perhaps the best, way to store it. 

In the Fall of last year, I planted two varieties of garlic:  Inchelium Red a large, medium strength, soft-neck garlic than can store up to 6 months and Purple Glazer, a medium strength, hard-neck garlic that keeps up to 8 months.  This week, I harvested them and placed them into my garage to store.

Harvesting Garlic

Knowing when to harvest garlic is not easy.  It's generally recommended that garlic is ready to harvest when the leaves begin to die back.  This is a good first indicator, but you also want to make sure the bulbs are fully developed.  One way to tell is to scrape dirt away from one of the garlic plants and touch the bulb with your fingers to see if you can feel individual cloves.  If so, the garlic is ready to come out of the ground.

Storing Garlic

Garlic can be stored by chopping it up and freezing it in ice cube trays, drying the individual bulbs, or fresh pickling in vinegar for storage in the refrigerator.  Storing garlic in oil to preserve the bulbs or make infused oils is an attractive sounding idea.  Unfortunately, it is not a safe storage technique and can lead to botulism. 

The easiest method in my opinion is to just store the bulbs in a dry environment at room temperature.  Garlic preserved in this way can last many months, but it does vary considerably by variety.  I specifically choose garlic varieties with both long-storage capabilities and medium strength flavor profiles.

After removing from the ground, I just brush off the bulbs and place them in my garage at room temperature to cure. (Don't cut off the leaves or roots as garlic stores better this way)  During this period the leaves will turn brown and the bulbs begin to dry.  Curing generally takes about 3 weeks.   After that point you can braid the garlic if you like but I don't bother.  I use some string and tie together several heads by putting a knot around the dried stems.  Garlic stored in a cool dry spot can keep many months.

Another approach is to quick pickle garlic and store it in the refrigerator.  Unlike canning that uses heat to preserve food, quick pickling uses ingredients such as salt, sugar and especially vinegar to keep food fresh.  It's primarily the acid in the vinegar that does the trick, so follow the proportions of the recipe carefully;  you want to keep the ratio of vinegar to garlic at the right level to maintain safe preservation.  Once pickled in this way, garlic will last months in the refrigerator.  By the way, you don't want to use traditional canning techniques to pickle garlic, the heat involved severely degrades the taste.

If you would like to try pickling garlic, here's a simple recipe from AllRecipes.com. 

Some Good Garlic Varieties

Garlic can vary dramatically in flavor and storage capability.  Some garlic will have a mild flavor, others can be almost white hot.  Likewise, there are some varieties that are better for storage.  Perhaps the best approach is to choose one long-storage variety and one that has a flavor profile that you really like.  That way you get the best of both worlds.

Mild Flavored: Siberian, Purple Italian, Rogue River, Belarus.

Medium Flavored: Inchelium Red, Purple Glazer, Chesnok Red, Georgian Crystal.

Strong Flavored: Leningrad, Lorz Italian, Ajo Roja,Georgian Fire, Music, Kilarney Red, Polish Hardneck

Long Storage: Burgandy, Creole Red, Locati, Nootka Rose, Rose du Var.

Comments

[Organic Gardening Tips]

Wonderful post! Garlic is an indispensable spice for many cultures, and this article has given valuable information. Cultivating and storing garlic are not that complicated as they may seem after all!

[Julianne Idleman]

We had great luck this year with 'Chinese Pink' garlic. It was ready very early, we loved eating it green as well, and so far it has dried down and seems quite happy stored in the house. Got about 50 heads of garlic from a 4'x4' raised bed, even though we stole quite a few for fresh eating.

Unfortunately 'Music' didn't do well. I think the crazy spring rain ruined it. Half the heads were mushy and starting to break open. Maybe I left it in the ground too long?