We save garlic until next season: popular ways
Garlic is one of the most beloved and popular spices in the house. Cooking jellied meat or a spicy cheese snack for sandwiches cannot do without it, to say nothing of winter preparations, because in almost every recipe for pickling and canning vegetables, you need to add aromatic cloves. However, quite often by spring, instead of elastic heads, empty husks or sprouted slices appear in the pantry. What to do to prevent such a phenomenon and how to store garlic so that it does not deteriorate over the winter? There are several popular ways to help preserve the crop, provided the heads are properly prepared for storage.
How do you prepare garlic for storage?
In order for the garlic to lie all winter, you need to responsibly approach its preparation. First of all, it is worth digging carefully so as not to cut the heads with a shovel - they will no longer be able to be saved. After harvesting, the garlic together with the tops should be well dried, spread out under a canopy and leaving for 10 days. Before that, carefully sort and discard damaged, diseased and empty heads and cloves - only whole, elastic, without traces of rot are suitable for storage. In dried garlic with pruning shears, you need to cut off the stems and roots (the first are left in whole or in part if the garlic is stored in braids or bunches).
It must be borne in mind that the longest, almost until the new harvest, is stored spring garlic - it is smaller, with white smooth scales, ripens at the end of summer. The winter species is much larger, ready for harvesting at the end of July, but will not lie more than 3 months.
How to store garlic
Dried and sorted garlic can be sent for storage using the following methods:
- Hanging storage... Weave tight braids, for strength, passing a string through them, and hang them in a dry pantry or on a glazed balcony. Garlic tied in bunches is stored in the same way.
- Banks... The easiest option is to simply put the heads in a three-liter bottle, tie it on top with gauze so that the garlic breathes, and take it out to a dry place. And if you disassemble the heads into cloves, then they must be sprinkled with salt. You can also clean the cloves and fill them with vegetable oil, closing the top with a nylon lid. In this form, jars should be stored in a cellar or refrigerator.
- Breathable mesh or pouches... These can be fabric handbags, burlap or ordinary old nylon tights. Heads are poured there and kept in a dry, ventilated place, periodically sorting out the contents.
- Waxing. Garlic it will last more than 6 months if the heads as a whole are dipped in hot paraffin and folded into a cardboard box.
- Canning... Put the peeled cloves in a jar, pour vinegar (white) or wine, close with a nylon lid and refrigerate.
Some housewives still freeze peeled and chopped cloves, but it should be borne in mind that this method changes the taste of garlic. In general, it is quite possible to preserve the spice during the winter and it is not difficult not only in a private house where there is a basement, but also in apartment conditions.