CC, we store garlic in our unheated (but insulated & drywalled) garage on a rack like this one from Gardener's Supply. I saw it & begged my DS to build me one for my July birthday...just in time for this year's harvests. Our garage does not freeze. The temperature stays in the 35-38 range. We store a lot in the garage. Just be sure to keep air circulation. Something like a low-edged basket in a single layer would work well also.

Don't know exactly where you live but you might take your garage's temperature (smile) & see if it will work as storage?

/tricia

Here is a link that might be useful: Harvest Rack - Gardener's Supply

Just keep it in your cupboard....in something airy.
I keep garlic in one of those pierced pottery jars on the counter.
NOT in the refrig nor in an unheated garage...when I have a lot....like a braid, I store it with my onions and potatoes. I have heard that storing apples with potatoes keeps them from sprouting.....and I KNOW from bitter experience it keeps tulips and narcissus from sprouting....I'll bet it would do the same for garlic?

I keep garlic in the pantry in shallow wicker baskets. It stays 45-50-ish most of the winter and some of my varieties keep until April.

And, roasted garlic freezes well.

I keep my usual small supply (one or two heads, in a bowl on the counter with my onions), and it sprouts fairly fast. I want my three pounds to last, so I'll have to keep it cooler.
My garage is detached and it freezes, so I guess it's the cellar if the refrigerator would be too cold.
Good idea about roasting some and freezing it.

You can peel and freeze it raw too!

Deanna

I would chop loads of it and mix some with some chopped parsley and freeze it, and mix the rest with chopped parsley and butter and freeze it. Handy to have.

If you can wait a few days, I will share with you:

1. A simple method of peeling a lot of garlic.

2. Keeping a lot of garlic.

dcarch

Apples keep garlic from sprouting....and you need to keep it in the dark....not in a bowl on the counter.
Also I have read that the transition from cold to warm....or from warm to cold makes the garlic sprout.
Keep your garlic in a cool dark place....not tightly covered in a tupperware container or a plastic bag...with an apple nearby....even an old pruney apple works.....and it won't sprout.
As to how to peel it....for one or 2 cloves I do the routine of hitting it with the broad side of a chef's knife blade then just pick the clove out of the pile of garlic skin on the counter......for a whole head I smash it with my hand and then shake it in stainless bowl covered with a metal lid....like the link below shows.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to peel a lot of garlic fast.

Linda, thanks for the link. That's awesome. I usually buy it peeled at the Asian market but the batches are a lot larger than what I need right away so they end up in the freezer.

We have those 3 lb. Costco bags too LOL. So far so good, on the counter, no sprouting. For that price, I can replace it if it does.

I second Linda's stainless steel bowl method for more than a few cloves: for a whole head I smash it with my hand and then shake it in stainless bowl covered with a metal lid. Works like a charm!

I have seen that method posted on many sites. Many have tried and found it not working well, especially if you don't have his strength.

I have not tried his method, so I cannot say.

I will post my method in the next few days, if I can find my video and cut the video short.

dcarch

Tricia's storage method is the best. You want the garlic stored in a dark ,cool place, and you do NOT want much variation in temperature. Once the garlic starts to warm up, that is when it starts to sprout.

We have a number of "organic" garlic growers here on the Island and that is the advice I've been given.

When you buy "grocery store" garlic often it has already started to sprout. The reason being is that it is trucked in refrigerated units. And when it hits the warm grocery store, it warms up and starts to grow.

Keep it cool and dark.

I buy enough garlic to keep me going until early in the New Year and use it up before it has a chance to sprout.

Ann, if it's cool and dark, does it need air circulation? Could I keep it in a tin in the cellar?
Tricia, it sounds like your garage is about refrigerator temperature, at 35 to 38in the coldest months. So maybe the fridge would work, remembering Ann's caution about not bringing it from cold to warmth until I'm going to use it.
I can try several different methods for storage, including airy and dark on a shelf.

I'll also try new peeling methods suggested for large quantities. My usual way is to cut off the ends and whack the close lightly with a chef's knife, and that works fine. And I bought the silicon tube garlic peeler Barnmom and others suggested.

Mine sprouts no matter where I keep it, so I like to sautee and freeze it. It makes getting a meal on the table so fast, and seems just as good as freshly sauteed.

Don't keep it in a closed tin....it will mold and get soft, garlic needs air circulation....just like potatoes do.
Don't keep it in the refrigerator....a refrigerator has a certain level of moisture in it....keep it on a cool shelf....as not on top of the refrigerator or above the toaster oven.
I have one of the gizmo's shown below.....different design but the same idea....holds 4 or 5 heads of garlic. Any garlic that won't fit in there gets stored in a brown paper bag...open at the top in the place where I keep onions, potatoes and apples.
If it hasn't been refrigerated before I get it, it keeps a very long time.
Linda C

Here is a link that might be useful: garlic keeper

My garlic always seems to sprout, too, no matter what. Sounds like it's a temperature/transportation issue. I only buy a couple bulbs at a time.

As for peeling, the only time I really think about it is when needing a bunch, like for a "40 Cloves of Garlic" recipe, and then the bowl trick has worked well. But for a few cloves, smash and peel is quick and easy and has the added benefit of giving you a head start on mincing. When when I want to keep the cloves whole and pretty I simply cut off the hard root end a give the clove a quick roll between my palms and the skin falls right off.

Jessica, fresh garlic should not sprout for many months if store properly. Store bought will sprout almost immediately regardless of how it is stored.

Cloudy, A brown paper bag works as does a burlap sack.

Ann

I mostly buy farmer's market garlic. At the moment, I have two separate stores of garlic bought on the weekend, one specifically labeled new crop and one not. I'll take note.

Also....if you happen to have one....a Chinese cleaver works well for 5 or 6 cloves at a time.

You know what, FOAS? I was thinking about Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic as well as Seven-Hour Lamb. Read a bunch of the chicken recipes; from my quick look it seems the more traditional recipes make it with unpeeled garlic. Much easier! Gotta do more research...

Not in my experience and recipe files....
Alton Brown peels his garlic as does James Beard....Most versions of Gigot de sept heures recommend peeling the garlic.
If you don't peel the garlic, you strain them out of the sauce.
But I am sure we have all done the baked whole head squeezed onto a crusty French loaf.
Outside of that, I peel garlic.

Linda, I wasn't referring to Gigot àsept heures, but to Poulet aux quarante gousses dâÂÂail.

Which is French for "Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic".
The thing is, if you don't peel the garlic you can't eat it with the chicken but have to pick it out and squeeze the garlic over your bread....not a bad thing at all!!
But however you do it....you really don't want to eat the garlic skin.

Here is a link that might be useful: chicken with 40 cloves

I keep mine in one of those mesh zipper bags for washing delicate laundry. I hang it on a hook in the stairway leading up to our attic. It's cool in summer and cool but not freezing in the winter and is dark unless I turn on the light.

I am just curious about the recommendations I have seen everywhere: Keep garlics in dark, dry, and cold storage to prevent sprouting. Which environmental factor is most influential?

The garlic cloves I plant in ground are in total darkness, moist soil, yet they only sprout until the soil temperature is warm next spring.

dcarch

Exactly!!!!! The ground warms up.

Once the temperature warms up that starts the sprouting. As I have mentioned before, the reason that garlic starts to sprout is because most people buy it at the grocery store and then bring it into their warm kitchens. Chances are the garlic had already had a couple of temperature changes and it started sprouting in the store.

Ann

Actually I should have emphasized "next spring".
Why next spring?

I have garlic gloves which I have left in ground since two months ago, and it has been warm and wet two months. No sprouting.

I am a serious garlic user, but not a serious grower and I don't have the knowledge about garlic life cycle. It seems to me that garlic has a dormancy cycle that is possibly cold temperature triggered, not by warm temperature.

dcarch

I see your point dcarch, but seems that would be a question about all bulb plants.

Perhaps the recommendation for dry is to prevent mold or rotting?

Garlic, like tulips and many other bulbs and seeds requires stratification in order to grow. That is they must be chilled for a period of time and then warmed......then they will sprout.
It's the biology thing that allows seeds to be dropped in the fall, sleep under a blanket of snow and sprout in the spring. It's the process that allows you to find fresh tulips at a florist in Februrary. Those bulbs have spent at least 6 weeks in a refrigerator, and then were brought out into a warmer greenhouse.
It's not the cold or the warm that makes garlic sprout....but the warm AFTER the cold that triggers the mechanism. Garlic you buy fresh form the grower now should easily last all winter....if they have not been chilled to trigger the sprouting.

The little garlic keeper I have is made of clay I'm thinking if you have alot - hit Lowes and but a terra cotta pot with a saucer and use it as a lid. It helps mitigate the humidity issue and you can put it in your garage till Spring.