Well, harvest is starting, and low and behold, I've got 55-60 nice garlic bulbs full of cloves! I'm so excited. I pulled one up to give to MIL and got so psyched I pulled up 9 more. I mulched, weeded, and took care of them all winter and Spring and they have rewarded me! I'm gonna have to plant 3x as much next season now, of course.

But, now that I have all this garlic here, I'd like to preserve them-specifically by cutting them up and storing them in some olive oil, if possible. we eat pasta with garlic and O. oil all the time and it would be great to just whip out a can of some homeade concoction to throw in the pan.

Can I just put them in O. oil and store them in the pantry? Do they need to be processed like other fruits/vegies? Sealed, I assume? Please oh please give me a recipe. I searched around harvest forum but everything is r/t pickling or drying, which I'd rather not do.

thanks!
Vicki

Even the commercial versions have come under fire, because some studies indicate there are health hazards with it.

Sorry.

However, garlic is one of the longest-keeping veggies going. If you grew hardnecks they will keep for 6-9 months if cured and stored properly. Softnecks will keep as much as a year. So it shouldn't be a big deal to just pop a clove or six when you need them.

When I want that sort of pasta sauce, I thinly slice the cloves and mix them with the oil over very low heat. The goal is to infuse the oil with the garlic flavor, rather than cook the garlic. When that incredible aroma rises from the pan I dump everything into the pasta, and that's that. Quick, easy, and delicious.

I'm growing some pickling cukes so maybe I can throw a few in the brine when the time comes.
Vicki

For storage purposes, what you are doing is curing the garlic. The idea is for the tops to fully dry (so the bulbs absorb their energy), and for the outer wrappers to dry and shrink as tightly as they can to the head. This forms a protective barrior against moisture and disease. The cloves, themselves, are not dried. At least that's not the intent.

The reason we lift garlic when we do---when only 1/2-2/3 of the leaves have started to yellow---is to assure that there are enough of those outer wrappers to form that protective barrior.

Eventually (if they don't sprout first) the cloves themselves will start to dry. Or you can dry them intentionally, like in a dehydrator. It's the dried cloves that you use for making your own garlic powder.

Personally, I subscribe to the idea that it's foolish to take unnecessary risks. Life, today, has enough risks we can't avoid.

Frinstance, I have friends who each year can green beans using the open kettle method. The woman learned that method from her grandmother. When I mentioned the possible dangers, she replied, "well, in three generations we haven't killed anybody yet."

That may be true. But I won't eat beans at her house, either.

My feeling is that so long as there is an alternative, safe choice for accomplishing a goal there is no reason to use a possibly unsafe method.

Thus, in the case of garlic-infused oil, I'll continue to make it fresh when I need it.

We started out just putting cloves of garlic (Music) in pint jars filled with olive oil and actually gave it away as Christmas presents for a couple of years. Everyone loved it! However, have since learned about botulism, etc. So don't do that anymore. What we now do is put the cloves in a jar fill with olive oil and refrigerate. That seems to work well, and while it probably doesn't satisfy the food police, Oh well. Also, over time the oil becomes garlic infused and is added to the pasta sauce and then topped off with more oil.

The comments about "risk" stated here are valid, however, wonder what the folks in the Mediterranean would say about it? They've been preserving things "illegally" there since before recorded history. My personal favorite "food police" warning concerns boiled eggs. "They must be immediately refrigerated and if unrefrigerated for more than an hour must be discarded." Anyone remember Easter Egg Hunts? How about visiting a local "fire hall" where a bowl of hard boiled eggs usually sat in the middle of the table if someone got hungry. 'course, "someone" usually put an uncooked egg in there for "grins and giggles." :-)

Ev