How to keep garlic for the winter at home is an important issue for many gardeners. For me as well. At what temperature should garlic be stored? How to save garlic in the winter? Surely, at this point, as you read this article, all the garlic has already been removed, dried, tied in bunches or scattered in boxes for storing vegetables. At first, he should still remain for further drying, or in some room, for example, a barn, or a shaded place on the veranda, under a canopy.
When to dig garlic for storage
In many respects, successful storage depends on the harvesting time, because when digging out too early or, conversely, late, some negative processes occur that worsen further storage of garlic in the winter at home.
How to guess the time of digging? The garlic flower heads on the arrows in which the bulbs ripen will tell us about this. In fact, arrows should be broken off as soon as they reach a length of 10-12 cm. But I always leave a few pieces in order not to miss the time of cleaning. The appearance of the arrows will tell us whether the garlic has ripened or not.
If the arrow is twisted, bent and the head looks down - the garlic has not ripened. And if the arrow is straightened, the head looks vertically up - ready for cleaning.
There is another sign of ripening. If the case on the arrow head has burst, then cleaning can begin.
Preparing garlic for storage
When digging up garlic, I usually use digging forks, not a shovel, it’s easier to dig whole, not chopped, onions.
In no case do not try to shake the ground from the dug bulbs, knocking them on a pitchfork, a shovel or even on the soil. Garlic is a tender vegetable. The slightest microtrauma can cause infection to get inside. Such garlic will be poorly stored. And the adhering earth can easily be removed from the heads along with the outer dry scales when it dries.
Do not immediately pick off a thick beard of roots from freshly dug bulbs. Let them dry first. Break off, and it is better to cut off already dry roots with scissors. The same goes for the stem. Cut it off only when it is completely dry. When cutting, leave the stump of the stem at least 3-5 cm, so that when trimming it does not touch the tips of the teeth.
Well-dried heads can be folded into baskets, plastic boxes for vegetables, cardboard boxes, but not in plastic bags, where they suffocate, begin to deteriorate faster.
Ways to store garlic, where to store it in winter
Storage of garlic in the cellar
The easiest and most reliable way is to lower the plastic box for storing vegetables with fully dried onions into the cellar. There it will be well preserved until spring. But only on one condition - if you have a dry cellar, the temperature inside which in winter does not rise above + 5ºС. For example, I can’t boast of conditions that are comfortable for storing it in my cellar - the humidity in the winter is usually high, the garlic begins to grow ahead of time. Therefore, this storage method is not for me, but this does not mean at all that you will reject it either. Based on your conditions.
Freezing garlic for the winter
The fact that you can save it this way, I learned not so long ago. What do we need for this? We need to prepare any mold for ice and a meat grinder in advance.
We clean the teeth from the shell. I usually also use teeth with small injuries that will not be stored for a long time. Grind the teeth - we get the garlic gruel. When all the garlic intended for this method of storage is ground, we spread the resulting slurry with a teaspoon into the cells of the ice mold. Garlic mass quickly freezes, garlic cubes are obtained. I shake them out in an ordinary plastic bag, which I store in the freezer. Usually for my not-so-big family, it’s enough for me to freeze 3-4 molds for the winter. That's all.
Frozen garlic is very well stored. When I need it for cooking a dish, for example, a sharp salad of beets with garlic, I take out a frozen cube from the freezer, which, by the way, thaw very quickly.
Frozen garlic perfectly retains its beneficial properties, taste and aroma after thawing. You can store it frozen for 1-2 years - the taste does not change.
Storage of garlic in vegetable oil
It often happens that we could not grow healthy garlic. The pests damaged, some specks appeared on the teeth. What to do? Such cloves will not be stored under normal conditions. Eat, if there are a lot of them, quickly also will not work. You can use such garlic for freezing, as described above, or you can put the peeled teeth, cut off from damage, into sterile jars and add vegetable oil. Close the jar with a plastic lid with small holes. Keep refrigerated. Such garlic will not be stored for a long time - a maximum of two months. But still, it's better than throwing it away. Therefore, this preparation should be used for food as quickly as possible.
But not only teeth can be used to prepare various dishes, but also oil, which acquires a pleasant garlic aroma.
Garlic Conservation Tricks
- Burning the roots - garlic will be better stored if you burn the cropped roots with fire - a match or a lighter before laying it for storage. Of course, the firing process is long, but it increases the shelf life many times. By the way, burnt bulbs, if they are healthy, without damage, are well stored at home - I, for example, have a balcony door in a cardboard box.
- Storage of garlic with flour or salt. Well-dried heads are placed in glass jars and covered with flour or salt, and the contents are shaken so that the bulk product fills all the voids. The jar is closed with a lid and cleaned where it is cool, for example, in the cellar.
- Garlic is well stored in an ordinary cardboard box with sifted wood ash or sawdust.
- You can pack dry heads in a paper or cloth bag, sprinkling them with dried onion husks.
- And one more old way of storage - in a stocking or a grid.
- Sealing the roots or the whole head with a candle. You can "seal" the cut roots on the head with molten paraffin or stearin from a candle. Or you can dip the entire head into molten paraffin.