Garlic Storage

10 years ago

Hi!
I have been a member here for quite awhile but haven't posted. (maybe once...several yrs ago). I always find answers here.
This is my 3rd yr growing garlic. I have had luck storing it in a dark, air conditioned room. I clean it, trim roots, cut stems, peel off outer wrappers. Most of what I have is cured. I need to finish up though.
I have a buyer for pretty much all of my garlic. He's a chef in a dining club. I think my pricing for the area is ok. He's willing to pay asking price. (THAT was a hard one. Nobody really produces garlic in the area so trying to compare was difficult) I told him I would take a dollar off per pound if I just cut the leaves off and that's it. He would have to deal with the roots, dirty wrappers. He liked the idea. I liked the idea of not having to peel wrappers, the time consumption to do it all.
My question is this: Did I speak too soon about that? Will garlic keep well if leaves and roots are left on for months? I got to thinking about it and also thought about the storage issue. That's a lot of dry material to bring into the house. What about just leaving the roots on? I really would like some opinions soon, as I am just getting prepared to cut the garlic down from the rafters and go thru the motions.
Thanks for any/all help!

This post was edited by woodswoman on Tue, Jul 23, 13 at 9:06

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Comments (6)

theforgottenone1013 (SE MI zone 5b/6a)
10 years ago
I always cure my garlic with the stems, leaves, and roots attached. When I harvest, I wash the dirt off the bulbs, tie them in bundles, and hang them in my garage. I leave them like that until I'm ready to use them. When I want one I'll cut off the stem and trim the roots before using.

Rodney
woodswoman
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks for your response! I also cure my garlic with all attached, They are all still hanging. I do need to get them out of the rafters and store. How long do you leave them hanging before use? Do they stay quite sometime? Months?
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I usually pull mine the first week of July, and cure it inside in the shade, on cardboard, roots, stalk and all, for a month. That gets it dry enough to brush off the roots and snip the stems. I then keep it in either paper bags, onion sacks, or recently, some shoe-box size cardboard boxes that have some slits in the sides for ventilation. I re-plant in mid-september to mid-october, so there isn't much chance of spoilage. What will mess you up is too rapid drying, from direct sunlight and that shrinks the bulbs down considerably, or not drying out completely, which gets mold and stuff. I don't know what I did right this last year, but I was able to save whole heads from last July until now, a full 14 months, and although I wouldn't want to eat any, they'll still be good for planting in a couple months.
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Our turbans were harvested in mid may and have just begun to sprout. I have found sometypes will sprout first other will grow roots first. Our garlic is stored in our garlic shed which can really get hot in our carolina summers and keeps fine . I am still selling our smaller heads at the farmers market for eating and all varieties but our turbans are not sproting yet. The turbans have been out of the ground almost a month longer than the other types. We have had elephant keep till next harvest but we do bring it inside when it gets really cold (our shed is not insulated) Commercial garlic farmer info says to store their garlic at right above freezing (32.5-33).It keeps along time. It won't sprout but as soon as they pull it out of the cold storage it will sprout Thats why the grocery store stuff is always sprouting. Since all of ours is usually sold before sprouting time we don't have to use cold storage for keeping . We just make garlic powder out of what we have left.
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Hello Greezer ... I grow different maturing garlics strains, mainly because the properties for each strain, I found that creoles .. specially AJO ROJO ( not rocambole spanish roja) stores well in my zone 6, with excellent terrific flavor good for all cooking purpose, saute, baked, soups .. or just simply rubed in a piece fo bread :)! these particular strain does not give you a large head instead it produces at least the first year a small head with at least 8-10 small cloves per bulb with a very pretty red clove wraper ( not bulb the bulb wraper reamins white). When the seed is recycle I plant the bigest cloves, and after 3-5 years I have seen the light with the bulb / cloves sizeing but one have to be patient. I also found after years and lots of garlics 500 heads per season, that our garlics stored better if you simply hang them in bunches with their foliage and don't fuss over them. Also left them in our lower enclosed porch, there is where we hang them, during the hot summer days we have a big fan circulting the air if you will, and once Oct comes we turn the fan off and leave the garlics hanging, we do not bother to clean them or brush them, nor cutting the dried foliage if you will, just simply get what we need when we need them, again we grow @ 15 strains ... which are the ones that I like best after trying 30 + strains, and YES, some garlics like the persian star, and killerney, do show signs of the green shoot (and indication of spaouting and early maturing) -so I try to use those garlics first and contemplate the creoles for the last ones to use. Martin could perhaps share his storing practices :)! Thank you and Be well,
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kristincarol
10 years ago
I have been growing garlic for many years. I always wash the garlic off first thing after being removed from the earth. I then strip off two or three of the leaves/wrappers and trim the roots a bit. The garlic, both hardneck and softneck, are cured with the foliage/stems on. When it is nearly done curing I cut off the hardneck stems or braid the softnecks.

I also sell most of my garlic "wholesale" to either the small organic market in my town or to one of the vendors at our farmers market who uses it for seed. Think I will expand the seed business as it is guaranteed I will sell all I grow of the one variety that farmer likes.

But washing it is something that divides the women from the girls, I think. It produces a much better product. Given the choice between nicely processed garlic and dirty, messy-looking garlic with all the stems and leaves--well, neat and clean always seems to win in my experience.

That said, I only grow about 400. Anyone who really grows in bulk cannot spare the time to fuss over the crop like a boutique grower like myself can.
woodswoman
Original Author
10 years ago
I had 800+ in the ground last fall. I lost some due to the very wet spring and summer we had. The chef interested in all I have has agreed to take it with roots and dirty wrappers attatched. I just wondered if that would affect the storage time, as he won't be taking it all at once. So many lbs per month has been agreed upon.
theforgottenone1013 (SE MI zone 5b/6a)
10 years ago
Once cured, I keep them hanging with the stems and roots attached. They last quite a while like that, well into winter. I've done this for years. Although it gets cold in my garage when winter sets in so when spring rolls around my garlic starts to go south. I'm going to bring them in the house this year before it gets cold so I'll cut off the stems then. I harvested them all last week, they are tied in bundles and curing in the garage now, so I'll probably bring them in the house around late October/November.

Rodney

This post was edited by theforgottenone1013 on Wed, Jul 24, 13 at 11:57
Mark
10 years ago
Woodswoman,
I don't think that keeping roots/dirt on will effect the garlic storage in any way as long as it's dry.
That said, I think you should consider just cleaning the garlic and selling it for full price. On first thought, you're local chef may think it a good deal to save some money and do the trimming themselves, but few chefs I know would be excited to bring the dirt/roots into their clean restaurant.

Also, for the short amount of time it takes to clean the garlic after it's cured, losing 1/6 to 1/10 of your price is quite a lot.
Last year we trimmed and sorted over 6000 garlic in one day by inviting friends out for a pizza and beer trimming party. The culls and splits people got to take home for their efforts.

-Mark

Garlic Storage

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theforgottenone1013 (SE MI zone 5b/6a)

woodswoman
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kristincarol

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Garlic Storage

Comments (6)

theforgottenone1013 (SE MI zone 5b/6a)

woodswomanOriginal Author

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kristincarol

woodswomanOriginal Author

theforgottenone1013 (SE MI zone 5b/6a)

Mark

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woodswoman
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woodswoman
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