Mmm, those look good, malna! Have you eaten scapes before? I tried garlic scapes this year for the first time, lactofermented with some dill. Wow! I was surprised at the HUGE garlic flavor. When DH eats some of these, I do too...as a form of self-defense.

Hi Guys, sorry it took me so long. I have(had)1300 heads of garlic in the garden and they were ripe. Getting them out at 6am so it was not too hot, than tying for a while and we had to find more space to hang them to dry. My 150 pickle plants are starting to produce in earnest now too, and the zukes, and the tomatoes....oh well. I am still canning cherries and apricots and baking a storm. Here is the recipe promised. It tastes especially good after a while. I sell a lot of this, so don't tell anyone I gave you the recipe (wink): Persian sugar Pickled Garlic ( my version follows) 4 heads garlic 2 cups red wine vinegar 2 cups water 1 cup sugar 6 whole cloves (the spice) 2tb black peppercorns Separate cloves but do not peel. Place all ingredients in a large heavy bottom saucepan. Bring to a boil, cook for 10 min. stirring from time to time. Reduce heat to moderate and cook 5 minutes. Cool to room temperature. Transfer to a large glass jar. Seal and refrigerate at least 1 month before serving. The garlic improves with age for as long as 15 years. taken from a book by Janet Hazen I have modified this recipe to follow the guidelines of accepted recipes from Ball and other sources, here is my recipe. I make a lot of it at a time, you might want to cut down my recipe. 5 lbs peeled garlic 8 cups vinegar 3 cups sugar 2 tbsps salt 30 cloves 5 tbsps peppercorns Bring all to a boil, cook 10 minutes, put in half pint jars, trying to make sure to put spices in all jars, 3/4" headspace, fill liquid to 1/2". Process 10 minutes in BWB. yield approximately 14 jars. I use less liquid because it is still usually too much, but all of it is vinegar. The pickle is a little less soft, I guess you could use a bit of water if you made it for yourself especially to keep in the fridge. I also cook them for less since they go in the BWB. I sell a lot of these especially after people tasted them. They are not at all hard, yet not soft and they are sweet. hope you like them Marie

The green/blue color tinge change is usually only temporary. Its attributed to some enzymes within the cloves, especially if they have been freshly dug and dried a week or two. Most garlic cloves would have that normal creamish color inside, and maybe even a purple paper skin. With colors like these within a clove is when acids in vinegar and heat of processing come into play. Ever drop iodine on a potato? It turns blue. I wonder what happens when you do the same with a true blue potato? Does it turn white? Hmmm food for thought. As to vinegar strength. I usually do ALL my vinegar based pickles with full strength 5% acidity distilled white vinegar. Even for that, more sweet and spicy B&B, sweet mixed, and a few other pickles that benefit from using some cider vinegar to be a bit more 'mello', may see a bit of water added. My pickled pepproncini are full strength vinegar too. With a full quart of pickled garlic, and full strength vinegar, you have a safer canning combination for that larger quart size mass. Was at a web site (canning pantry) where they offer many more Mrs. Wages pickle mixes. Apparently they realized that Ball as 'droppped the ball', when it comes to a bigger variety of mix flavors. There is one for making 'dilly' beans, pickled beets, and and also one for pickling all kinds of garden veggies. Additionally choices for refrigerater pickles, where you do no heat processing at all. Also found that, yes, Ball appears to have sugar in their dill pickle mixes (even as the first ingredient), hardly a true dill pickle. Polish dills use a few peppercorns in that style (Grandma did too).

The problem with some of the "old ways" with home food preservation is that today we are contending with bacteria that didn't even exist 25-30 years ago, and that bacteria is more deadly. I also find it interesting people are willing to take some out-dated and potentially unsafe food process and make it at home, but would never consider it safe if it were done commercially. I guess it depends on who can we blame or sue.... If you have some doubts with the safety of an older food process, check with your County Extension Service Food Specialists or your County Health Department. You can also check information at the National Center for Home Food Preservation - on-line. The recipes at the NCHF are tested for food safety. The link below has a method for garlic in wine/vinegar that is NOT heat processed. They suggest storing it in the refrigerator for up to 4-months. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: GARLIC Safe Methods to Store, Preserve, and Enjoy