How to save garlic for the winter - different ways and tricks

How to guess the timing of digging? About this we will be prompted by garlic flower heads on the arrows, in which the bulbs ripen. In fact, the arrows of garlic should be broken off as soon as they reach a length of 10-12 cm. But I always leave a few arrows in order not to miss the time of harvesting. The appearance of the arrows will tell us whether the garlic is ripe 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 - the garlic is ready for harvesting.

There is another sign of maturation. If the cover on the head of the arrow has burst, then cleaning can be started.

Storage Preparation

When digging up garlic, I usually use digging forks rather than shovels, so it’s easier to dig whole and not sliced ​​onions.

In no case do not try to pick up the ground from the dug out bulbs, knocking them on the forks, shovels or even on the ground. Garlic tender vegetable. The slightest microtrauma can cause the infection to penetrate inside. Such garlic will be poorly stored. And the sticking earth can be easily removed from the heads along with the outer dry scales when it dries.

Do not immediately tear off the thick beard of the roots from the newly dug out bulbs. Let them dry out first. Cut off, and better cut with scissors already dry garlic roots. The same goes for the stem. Cut it should be only when it is completely dry. When trimming, stump from the stem, leave at least 3-5 cm so as not to touch the tips of the teeth when trimming.

Well dried heads of garlic, can be folded in baskets, plastic boxes for vegetables, cardboard boxes, but not in plastic bags, where they will suffocate, will begin to deteriorate faster.

There are many ways to store and preserve garlic.

Storage of garlic in the cellar

The easiest and most reliable is to put a plastic box for storing vegetables with completely dried garlic into the cellar. There he will continue well until spring. But only under one condition - if you have a dry cellar, the temperature inside of which does not rise above + 5ºС in winter. For example, I can not boast of comfortable conditions for garlic in my cellar - the humidity in winter is usually high, garlic begins to grow ahead of time. Therefore, this method of storage is not for me, but it does not at all mean that you, too, will reject it. Proceed from your conditions.

Freezing garlic for the winter

I learned about the fact that it is possible to preserve it not so long ago. What do we need for this, except garlic? We need to prepare in advance any mold for ice and meat grinder.

We clean the teeth from the shell. I usually use also teeth with minor injuries that will not be stored for a long time. Grind chives - we get garlic gruel. When all the garlic that is intended for such storage is milled, put the gruel in a teaspoon into the cells of the ice cakes. The garlic mass quickly freezes, you get garlic cubes, which I shake out into an ordinary plastic bag that is stored in the freezer. Usually for my not very large family it is enough for me to freeze 3-4 molds for the winter. That's all.

Frozen garlic is very well stored. When I need it to cook any dish, such as a spicy beet salad with garlic, I take out a frozen lump of garlic mass from the freezer, which, by the way, is quickly defrosted.

Frozen garlic perfectly retains its beneficial properties, taste and aroma after thawing. You can keep it frozen for 1-2 years - taste does not change.

Storing garlic in vegetable oil

It often happens that we could not grow healthy garlic. Pests damaged, some specks on teeth appeared. What to do? Under normal conditions, such teeth will not be stored. Eat if there are a lot of them, quickly, too, will not work. You can use this garlic for freezing, as described above, and you can fold peeled peels, cut off the teeth from damage into sterile jars and pour vegetable oil. Close the jar with a plastic cap with small holes. Keep refrigerated. For a long time such garlic will not be stored - a maximum of two months. But still, it's better than throwing it away. Therefore, the garlic in oil will need to be used for food as quickly as possible. But not only the teeth can be used to prepare various dishes, as well as oil, which acquires a pleasant garlic aroma.

Life's tricks of preserving garlic

• Roasting roots - garlic will be stored better if you burn the cut roots with a match or cigarette lighter before putting it into storage. Of course, the burning process is long, but it increases the shelf life many times. By the way, such garlic, if it is healthy, without damage, is well kept at home in an apartment - for example, at the balcony door in a cardboard box
• "Sealing" the roots or the whole head with a candle - you can "seal" the cut roots on the head with meltedparaffin or stearin from the candle. And you can dip the whole head in the melted paraffin.
• Storing garlic with flour or salt - well-dried heads of garlic are put in glass jars and covered with flour or salt, shaking occasionally to fill the bulk product with all 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 garlic heads in a paper or cloth bag, sprinkling them with dry onion peel.
• And another old way of storing is in a stocking or mesh.

  Sealing of garlic roots with paraffin