garlic already put up for the season

[flowerbug]

usually i have more left that i store in the garage wrapped up well in towels to keep the light from getting to it. it will last until mid-February that ways.

this year i grew less than normal, so while getting ready for planting the crop for next year i had to pull apart the bulbs and pick out the cloves i wanted to plant.

this left me with about half and half mix of cloves that were in good enough shape to give away and the rest that needed some trimming or scrubbing and trimming before i could use them for something else.

in the past i've run the garlic through the meat grinder on a coarse grind, then i drench them with lemon juice, pack that in jars and freeze it. or i've made garlic relish, which is your basic sweet and sour brine (cider vinegar, sugar) and a little crushed red pepper for color/interest and then i can it and it keeps for a few years. one friend of ours will take all the jars i can give her of that. it's great on hot dogs with saurkraut and mustard...

well today i didn't have enough to make getting the meat grinder out worth it. so i minced it and packed it with the lemon juice.

quite a change going from several hundred heads of garlic to two dozen. come mid-December and January i'm going to be looking around for garlic to process.

as a side note, worms really seem to like the garlic trimmings, husks, roots, etc. and i like the smell of dehydrating garlic sitting in the scrap bucket waiting for me to feed it to the worms.

 

[Nyboy]

I have a jar of chopped garlic from whole foods. I think it is just packed in oil. I had the jar for a couple of years, I don't think it goes bad. But don't take my word for it, I have given friends food poisoning in the past.

 

[flowerbug]

I have a jar of chopped garlic from whole foods. I think it is just packed in oil. I had the jar for a couple of years, I don't think it goes bad. But don't take my word for it, I have given friends food poisoning in the past.

i'd never pack anything in oil unless it was also going to be pressure canned. that's just asking for trouble. when you buy a commercial product they often have other additives to acidify and are also pressure canned to be safe.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't use nearly that much garlic, it causes my wife digestive problems. I'll use it in things I cook just for me, in things like chicken broth or spaghetti sauce I'll give away and she won't eat, and I give some away either to other people and the excess goes to a food bank. It's easy to grow and my sister-in-law especially appreciated fresh garlic.

When I harvest it I hang it in an open air shed out of the sun and rain until it gets close to a freeze, then I move it into the attached garage and hang it in mesh bags. I don't want it to freeze. I only grow silver rose softneck and elephant garlic. It easily lasts until March and often later before it starts to sprout.

I already have next years planted. It's poking through the soil and needs weeding.

 

[digitS']

in the past i've run the garlic through the meat grinder on a coarse grind, then i drench them with lemon juice, pack that in jars and freeze it. or i've made garlic relish, which is your basic sweet and sour brine (cider vinegar, sugar) and a little crushed red pepper for color/interest and then i can it

I should read your posts right off, FlowerBug!

Garlic? I bet I couldn't use all the digitS' on 1 hand to count the seasons that I have grown garlic. So, I'm talking about having garlic in 10% or less of my annual gardens.

It isn't that I don't use it. It's just that I use so little and I buy it. Also, I try not to use salt by itself in my cooking. This is a way that I'm limiting salt in my diet. I think, "oh, it has to be in something else ... soy sauce! Garlic salt! Grab that!" I don't know if it's helping ... , we'll see.

Lots of onions each year ... and, I was just saying that shallots make me feel that I have something special . Ground shallots, drenched in lemon juice, frozen?!

Several years ago, I was encouraged by @hoodat to save shallot seed and replant. I had purchased hybrid seed, originally. The plants from my saved seed grew as single bulbs! So. Are these those eschalion (banana) shallots that I have been trying to learn something about? Was that one of the original parents?

I don't expect you to guess what I have in a basket in my garage, FlowerBug . But, from what I have read so far, banana shallots are not supposed to keep as well as the usual French red that I have kept in there for 20+ winters. Imagine, there is no heat and some of those winters it's been 15 below and colder. They do just fine!

Hmmm? shallots frozen in lemon juice or pickled in vinegar, salt and sugar ... that sounds okay. Mmmm! Sounds good.

Steve

 

[aftermidnight]

I miss growing my own garlic, I gave up on it as the last few years I grew it were very disappointing. I started getting a lot of rot, and it takes such a long time, and having a small garden I put that ground to a better use, yep more beans.

Annette

 

[digitS']

I've grown the Frog Leg, a very nice shallot.

Annette

I'll respond here and hope FlowerBug won't mind ...

Shallots are a low production crop and, like all onions, a little hard to keep weeded. Did you find them to be a good use for your ground, Annette? Maybe less prone to rot, more tolerant of shade? That's been my experience -- except, I wasn't comparing them with garlic. But, I was able to kind of push them into a little more difficult areas. And then, like onions, really sock the organic fertilizer to them to make them happy.

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

I tried growing shallots for the first time this year, pretty disappointed. Some pretty small bulbs and some just rotted. I planted them in the spring, may have been better if I planted them in the fall like I do garlic. Or maybe it's just my weather.

 

[flowerbug]

I'll respond here and hope FlowerBug won't mind ...

huh? why would i mind? i'm a pretty easy going sort. if you think i'm making fun of anyone here you should always assume i'm firmly tongue-in-cheek and poking fun at myself as well.

 

[aftermidnight]

I have never had trouble growing shallots or potato onions. The reason I grow shallots is they are so damned expensive to buy at the supermarket.
I only grow one potato onion variety now a heirloom variety that is very hard to find. When I was down and out this summer hubby did the watering and they were watered when they should have been kept dry, nevertheless I managed to salvage enough to grow again. The variety is 'Broome Longkeeper' Hopefully I can build my stock up enough to use a few next year.

Annette