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Monday, July 29, 2019

GARLIC PROCESSING DONE

Recently, I took a break to process the garlic.  I'm afraid I might have left it to dry a little too long.   I checked last year and it was about a month earlier when I did it.  This all happened a couple of weeks ago, we forgot to post about it.


I might have left the garlic to dry a little longer than last year.  It was a bit separated but hey, it's still edible, that's all that matters.  This is it after I cut it down from the rafters in the barn.


A few weeks prior, I was at HEB (a Texas grocery chain) and saw these bags.  They are reusable mesh produce bags and I decided they would be great for putting the garlic in.


I sat on the porch (in the shade of course) and cut off the stems and peeled off the outer few dirt covered layers.  Some of the heads had shrunken a bit too much and were pulling apart into individual cloves but again it tastes like yummy garlic so it's all good in the long run, ha. 


The mess at my feet when I was done but it was easy to sweep off the porch...


...and here is the final harvest, I forgot to count the heads, but the weight was 5.1 lbs of garlic!

I'm just storing this in a cool, dark spot but we've already been using it.  It's great to have so much garlic for whatever we want to use it for.  But we do need to find some good new ways to use large quantities of garlic.


EDIT: I had set this to post automatically last night before bed.  Awoke this morning to the news of yet another mass shooting, this time at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California.  So sad to things like that.


16 comments:

  1. I believe you have more than enough garlic for the coming winter. You should look into preserving it in olive oil and freezing it. When my husband goes crazy at the farmers market in town he will buy veggies and herbs that I have no room to store. I wash and let dry, peel, cut and blanch then I pack herbs and veggies into jars with oil and process them. They last longer and you can use them up to a year later.

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    1. Oh we will definitely look into that. Thanks for the idea. SOUnds like a good solution for a lot of it. And yep, we'll be fending off vampires all Winter, ha!

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  2. Thanks for the tip on HEB's reusable bags. On my list! In addition to the obvious advantages I'll save time by not having to stand in front of the apples (or onions or....) for 5 minutes trying to open the $?!& plastic bags. 😉

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    1. They were not in the produce section for some reason. I saw them hanging along the side of the counter at the front of an aisle near the row with foil, baggies, etc. And OMG I HATE those bags I can never get open.

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  3. Homegrown Garlic is the Best....

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    1. Yes it is!! We had a nice harvest last year and enjoyed every bit of it. Looking forward to this years as well. Thanks for stopping by!!

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  4. What a bountiful harvest - you did good! Lots of garlic for lots of great dishes coming up.

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    1. We love it so we'll definitely get some use out of it. Plus it's healthy, ha.

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  5. Hubbie Keith just harvested our garlic today. we dry it in the barn across some old hog gates. I'll post about that soon. I did make a lot of garlic basil pesto last year in olive oil and then froze cubes of it in ice trays. was great for topping pasta, and bread. Your haul looks fantastic. nice job!

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    1. Can't wait to see your post. Hmm, garlic basil pesto freezing ih cubes sounds great. Thank you!!

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  6. What a wonderful garlic harvest.
    Thanks for the tip on them mesh bags

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    1. Thank you! And yep, everyone loves these mesh bags. I was just at an HEB today and saw a bunch of them. Check the section where the ziplock baggies and stuff are.

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  7. What a wonderful garlic harvest! In addition to packing them in oil and processing, you can also dehydrate the cloves then grind it into a fine powder for really delicious garlic powder.

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    1. I thought about dehydrating them in our dehydrator but I'm guessing the neighbors here in the apartment building might not like that, ha.

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  8. Whenever I get a good deal on garlic, I make a ton of garlic ghee and freeze it. We live in an area where there are a few Amish and Mennonite communities, and we can get good deals on really good butter. Usually a 2 lb roll of butter is in the $6 range.

    I break the bulb into cloves, roll them in my peeler to remove the skins, the add 2-3 bulbs per lb of butter and a pinch of salt to one of my white dutch ovens (so I can see the color of the garlic and butter) and put it on med-low, stirring every so often. If timed right, the garlic cloves get nice and tender and barely golden just about the same time the milk solids begin to brown. I use a slotted spoon to remove most of the garlic, then put the butter through a really fine mesh strainer to catch any small garlic pieces and the milk solids. I put the solids aside and use on steamed veggies, and split up the garlic into some small jelly jars and some in a specially marked ice cube tray. Add the ghee to the jars and ice tray to cover the garlic and freeze. I put the ice cubes into freezer zipper bags, and we use them in all sorts of stews and soups and pastas, but also make the most amazing garlic bread!

    That and 40 Clove Chicken. YUM!

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    1. WHOA! Thank you for this! How long do you think it takes? I realize it will be different but are we talking just 30ish minutes or is it a couple hour process? Thanks this sounds wonderful.

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