I always buy the loose garlic heads and never had a problem finding good garlic. I don't mind at all just preparing the cloves as I need them. For peeling, I do the knife-whack thing. Years ago someone gave me one of those silicone tubes for peeling garlic, but I thought it was kind of a PITA. A knife is much easier for me for peeling/chopping/mincing/mashing. I still have my garlic press but haven't used it in years. (LOL, totally off topic but I do use it to press cookie dough through to make "hair' for gingerbread cookie people.)

I remember long ago, in my early twenties, storing some heads of garlic in a closed plastic container. They were there for quite awhile until I needed garlic one day. I opened the container and noticed a good amount of white-ish powder. A closer look revealed the "powder" was moving. Garlic storage lesson learned! :-/

My Costco has the big bags from ChristoperRanch. Christopher needs to change professions or change crops. Or store it better. Or maybe they send the old stuff my way. And the heads are full of tiny cloves. Always some hollow ones. Does not ever seem to be any different January or July.

Store garlic should be pretty good right now. I agree that an organic or higher end store should have some good garlic.

It is easy to grow depending on climate, growing zone. Different varieties for various areas. A good seller will give all the information on each variety and suggest what will do well for you and characteristics like spiciness and size of cloves. Can't imagine anyone looks for the "tiniest cloves possible please" 😂. It grows so well in the HudsonValley here a local garlic festival is huge.

I ran out of my homegrown in late February. (Next springs crop should be perfect as I increase every year by 1/3rd.) Mid march I ordered a 10lb bag local wholesale and it is gorgeous. Not as nice as mine but impressive.

^^sushi's link for GarlicWorld might be a good way to go. CRanch does not ship but gives a store locator.

So many ways to store and process. I smoke/roast and oven roast a 1/2 sheet pan every year and freeze. Not roasted butter soft, but firm/soft so they pop right out whole. The rest lasts fine in my pantry through the holidays.

I don't know why but lately I've been having trouble getting good garlic heads too. They may look okay from the outside, but when I start using them, there are a lot of cloves that are brown or black. It makes it hard to have garlic on hand because I think I have a whole head and it turns out half of it is bad. And these aren't heads that I've stored a long time.

Gingerbread hair, 😂. Good idea!

Funny that one of the first purchases when young is a garlic press. Not used ours in years. Probably downstairs in the 'why-do-we-have-this-crap' bin.

We do the knife whack. Gentle tap for peeling whole, monster hard whack for a mince or puree.

I usually buy 10 lbs of garlic from a local organic farmer. Half I roast and freeze and the other half I dehydrate and use in a spice grinder. The 10 lbs. lasts us about a year. I am not as fond of raw garlic as I used to be and find the dehydrated gives the flavor without the bitterness.

I got some lovely heads of garlic last week from Fairway. Big fat cloves!
I never buy garlic, pre prepped in a bag...just NO!
You all do know that the garlic that has had all traces of the root scraped off is from China don't you? and you DO know that garlic is a low acid root vegetable and storing it in an aerobic enviornment...like in oil may lead to botulism poisoning.
Do not make garlic infused oil....nor use if you buy it. to be safe the garlic has to be compeletely dry and heated before infusing the oil. Much easier to do it at the last second.

I ordered garlic from Gilroy, and I've also bought braids of garlic while in Gilroy. What I bought in person was much better than what I received in the mail, but the shipment was still good, overall. It keeps for about six months braided.

If you love garlic, you should also attempt to grow your own. Just plant a clove that has already sprouted green leaves.

I agree, grow your own.

Garlic takes very little garden space, and require very little care.

dcarch

And sprouts lovely scapes that are delicious!

The only things easier in my garden are mint, chives, and rhubarb. Don't even need to say hi, good morning, and thank you. Garlic needs decent soil and mulch but no gentle baby-talk encouragement.

Good luck with the growing!

I gave a string of garlic gadgets as a wedding shower present for established adults. Some were great. The silicone cylinder works great for peeling cloves. There are other versions that don't work as well and are a pain to clean. Put the cylinder on a tine in the DW.

The little mandoline works, and slices very fine, but it bends and needs to be reshaped. A really sharp paring knife and patience works better. And cut proof glove if you have big fingers or long nails.

I prefer heavy duty presses to smashing with a knife. Do it over the pot to capture the juices.

i get my garlic from the organic farm, and used to get organic from Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. I don't have a cool enough place to store it sitting out, so keep it (and onions) in the fridge. They'll sprout and start to grow, but rarely dry out, and that’s from being exposed to the fridge evaporator. Usually, I keep them in the bags.

Sleevendog, I edited my post to remove Christopher Ranch. Thanks.

I do 'oops' all the time . We are a team connected and catch each other. We learn something new every day.

I do grow my own, although i don't find it as easy as some do ( I suspect because of the hot climate ; I've been trying "creole" varieties lately) , I hoard it when available from my CSA, in the summer and fall I'll find some decent stuff at my regular grocery (but only loose and selected by hand ; not in a bag, and only what I can use in about 30 days, which is a LOT), I use granulated when appropriate, but sometimes, especially in the late winter, I use this from the freezer section at a local high end grocery store. I sometimes use their ginger too.

I was trying to infuse by slowly heating the cloves in the hot oil. It just seemed to be logical that they needed to be cooked somewhat in order to take care of unwanted organisms. That was successful to some degree.

So, it is not just me who finds the garlic from Costco to be problematic. No more of that for me!

I think that I am going to try smashing it, putting it some oil and freezing it in small chunks for use in cooking. For a fresh use, that won't be the thing. .

I have the little silicone garlic peeler. That works if your garlic is really dry. Any little bit of moisture that get on the cloves and it does not work well at all.

I do peel and crush in the mortar and pestle with pretty good success, and the flat knife blade works too. But, I want something that I can just reach for without all the processing.

I get wonderful garlic at our farmer's market. If I can find one, I'll buy a nice fat garlic braid which will last me most of the winter. Our food co-op also carries nice organic garlic, but by early spring it's not as good as it is later in the summer and fall.

For peeling garlic, I have found that if you cut the cloves in half, the peeling often falls right off, especially from larger cloves and from hardneck garlic (which I've only gotten when Katie sent me some from Idaho).

Tom's brother grows 350 heads of garlic and gave me a bunch last year. I've been out of it for a while so I buy it from the grocery store. I freeze it. Quick to thaw and chop.

You freeze them individually and the skins slip right off, then into a bag and take out what you need.

I've also been increasing my garlic patch each year, this year I'll be up to 250 heads, I'll need to plant mine in about 6 or 8 weeks. I save the nicest cloves from my harvest each year to plant. This was a great year for garlic here, I've been growing something called "Music", but I'm in Michigan and that grows in colder climates, it's a hard neck type. I'm only assuming you are in Texas, where a soft neck type will probably grow better. It's easy to grow garlic, even in a raised bed or a small corner of the yard.

I keep the garlic until it starts to sprout, then I peel the cloves and dump them into the food processor to slice them, and put them in the dehydrator. They get stored in glass canning jars until I need them, then I can powder it up with my spice grinder, make small bits with a mortar and pestle, or dump the slices into whatever I'm cooking. When I run out, I buy garlic from the local farmer's market or vegetable stands. I try to always make sure I have enough to last through the winter, although I do occasionally have to grab a couple of heads from the local grocery.

Annie

Nice looking harvest!

I buy organic @Trader Joe's and store uncovered in a ceramic bowl in the fridge. It's so warm and humid here, it sprouts and shrivels up if left out.

The Costco garlic is seasonally good. Usually around November, if I remember correctly, they get in juicy flavorful garlic. My menu plans change some as I take advantage of the good stuff for a few months. Then I purchase fresh garlic from farmers markets, or a little place in my area that carries a variety of interesting fruits and vegetables, for a wonderful price.

I must have signed up for this Fall Garlic Now Shipping! - And 6 New Varieties Available

nanelle, I checked out their recipes, they have one for chocolate covered garlic! They kind of lost me on that particular recipe, LOL, but they have some nice looking garlic.

Annhie

Actually, I am in the mid Atlantic region and I understand that now is the time to plant garlic for next spring.

We had been planning on relocating by the spring, but now it looks as if we may not, so maybe I will find a place to grow some. My yard has gotten so shady from over towering growth from neighbors yards that there is very little space to grow much of anything. I have tried container growing of different things but captive plants require so much attention.

If the winter turns out cold it seems that in ground would offer more protection from freezing. Last winter was so unusual that we did not even use the snow shovel or the ice scraper even once. I have been here for almost 40 years and have never seen a winter like that.

Annie, we have a garlic festival every fall nearby. So big we have to take a different driving route to get to the farm. They have garlic ice cream and chocolate covered and just about anything you see 'fair people' make.

I have one garlic bed that is shaded now. It gets enough early spring sun to grow before the tree leaves fill out. Three 2 and 1/2 foot square beds. Garlic goes into one soon and I just planted a fall greens crop into the other two. The greens I started a few weeks ago in cell trays.

Lots of containers can be made to be easy care. Some are self watering.

I have a set of these,

The trick is to put a tray inside the bag. Something that fits the size. A planter saucer, a foil pie tin, any thing recycled like a grocery clamshell...it will hold water and wick from below. I've done lots of testing the past few years. The five gallon is really more like 3 gallons volume. Easy to move one person. 7-10 gallon might need two people.

Actually kicking myself I did not order a set of 7 or 10 gallon at the beginning of covid lock-down. The front yard in the city has full sun just outside the front door all summer. Much warmer than the mountain farm garden. I joked about it at the time but now know it would have been great.

I started a few on the sunny side of the barn, then moved them to the front stone wall when they filled out. A couple cascading cherry tomatoes, the chartreuse and purple potato leaf vine, and even grew a full size summer squash. It was really pretty and edible. I did fold the handle edge down by a 1/4 of the pot when moved. The pots disappeared in all the foliage.

Fabric pots do something called air-pruning. Roots of plants really fill the pot. Plastic or ceramic containers dry out too fast between watering.

That's all nice, but it assumes that you like gardening. Many of us do not. ;-)

^^🙄. Oh brother, 😂. The OP, dallasannie, did mention in her original post she might like to try and grow some garlic. Others listed on-line ordering choices. A braided 24 heads should last through the holidays. Then a Fall planted crop will be some of the best you will ever have. Free scapes. Harvested early and another crop goes in its spot.

Even the Costco bag is fine if it is decent enough if you go through it and process at least half of it. Like roasting and freezing. The price is right even if a few are less than fresh or hollow.

I'm just joking as much as you are Sushi. I do get the eye rolling you are doing.

Some really like information and thrive on it like I do. Some here gardened for years and can no longer grow having moved to assisted living or condo situations. Only a small patio or a deck like many NewYorkers. Garlic growing is not at all gardening. It is a crop like rhubarb in cooler climates. Stick it in soil and it grows. Rhubarb and chives, some other herbs are perennials that need no tending at all. Rain, no rain, they thrive every year. Kritters have no interest.

Could have been a good retirement plan but I have no interest in being a farmer. Just a gardener and sharing my bounty with neighbors and friends/co-workers.

We will get through this covid mess eventually. So many are irresponsible and complacent. I'm hopeful.

I grow year round. All winter. Veg and tomatoes. Not an ender or prepper. Just good fresh foods. But we have the knowledge and skills if needed.

(yeah, just kidding....)

I linked Allicin's Ranch because I think I signed up for it when I was desperate for good garlic just for eating. I think I discovered others that made sense for eating along the way, but I'm sure they aren't as affordable as what each of us can buy locally.

I thought I'd heard of everything made with garlic when someone mentioned garlic ice cream, LOL. I just can't wrap my head around chocolate covered garlic, though...

Annie

We have never been as the traffic is horrendous. Early on, 20 years ago, when it was held in a small village before the traveling funnel cake vendors, etc found out...it was charming.

This was such an easy google search find. Explains visually what I was talking about. (with a link)

TheSpruce link, HERE

This vid is just a couple minutes long. I have three of these ugly plastic boxes in my driveway garden. Really good for my tomato snackers like sunGold and POSpoonful and a few hot peppers. I can slide them to get the best sun. They have a water resevior that keeps a specific wicking amount in the bottom. Three of these, 5- 10 grow bags is such an easy garden. ^ tomatoes or 4 tomatoes and two hot peppers....zucchini, greens, garlic, salad. ...

So ugly but they work so well. Black Friday they have a decent sale. A tomato gardening friend in Florida has fifty of these. 100 tomatoes plants. (I'd rather have an inground pool.) 😜

I had better success than ever with those buckets last season.

In ground pool has been a waste since the kids moved on.