That's industrious! I just toss my heads in the back of my roots chill drawer, and tuck whatever bags are near around them so they don't dry out. :)

For over 25 years I have stored my hard neck garlic heads in a large bowl on the counter. They keep great for well over a year.

I keep some on the counter in a pottery garlic keeper at my prep area. The rest are in a basket in the pantry with shallots.

I store my garlics bulbs in the basement whole until fall planting time when I break up the best bulbs and select the biggest cloves for planting. Most of the cloves rejected for planting get dehydrated to make powder and the rest are put into a paper bag and stored in the crisper drawer.

Mine are in a small basket in the pantry where it’s dark and dry.

I learned years ago you can’t store garlic in an airtight container. I removed the lid one day and noticed white, powdery stuff all over the garlic. Then I noticed the white powder was moving. 😳

If I leave it out in the kitchen, it shrivels and starts sprouting in no time. I keep the whole and broken up heads in an open container - an old sugar bowl missing its lid - in the refrigerator. It lasts a long time that way.

chloebud, yup! That's why a garlic keeper has holes for ventilation.

@Judi, exactly! Garlic likes it dark and dry.

Never never store garlic in oil at room temperature --- there is extremely strong evidence that the combination forms the botulinum toxin and botulism will kill you. USDA says in this article.

I stotr mine in the vegetable drawer in the fridge. They would sprout in no time if I left them out.

Never, never store garlic in oil even in the fridge. All trustworthy sources say no more than a few days. "Garlic in oil should be made fresh and stored in the refrigerator at 40 °F or lower for no more than 7 days"--From the summary of the article at the link.

Am I the only one who peels and freezes the cloves? I have mine in a plastic bag and take out what I need.

My BIL who has since moved to BC grew 350 heads. When I'd see him in the summer he'd bring me braids of them. I miss that.

Jasdip - I put my dehydrated garlic chips in a canning jar and put it in the freezer. I only grind about 1/2 - 3/4 cup at a time into powder. I've also roasted a few dozen heads at a time and made frozen roasted garlic cubes using ice cube trays. Just have to thaw them a bit and warm in the microwave anytime we want roasted garlic.

I just leave garlic out on the counter by the stove. I buy it 6 bulbs at a time and we eat so much it seldom needs to keep longer than a couple of weeks.

I store mine with the potatoes and onions in my back "cold storage" room. My hard neck Music garlic keeps for a year, until I harvest the next year. I still have a dozen heads in storage and 4 heads in a pottery berry colander in my kitchen for easy access. The colander was a gift from Nancy/mortonnm and so I like to keep it where I can see it. That it's just the right size for 3 or 4 heads of garlic is a double bonus.

Some of the 250 heads I grow are dehydrated, but, like Jack, I keep the best cloves for planting in October. I get about 5 cloves per head, so 50 heads are saved, about 100 are dehydrated, another 50 are sold to the B&B across the road and the final 50 are kept in cold storage for the year's use. I have quite a few dehydrated, I just peel and run them through the thinnest slicing blade on the food processor, then dry them in the Excaliber.

I may dedicate one row to elephant garlic this fall, and only grow 200 Music, just because Elery wants me to and I have a lot of garlic dehydrated from last year that I haven't used yet, so room for experiments!

Annie

I have a ceramic garlic keeper on the counter.

I like to roast a couple sheet trays of whole heads in the Fall for the freezer. Usually piggy-back when roasting something else. Not roasted till 'butter' soft but just until they pop out of their skins easily. I can just grab what i need for a few recipes. The rest of the harvest is in cool storage to use fresh and save some for replanting.

Garlic mashed potatoes, some dressings, gravies, and a favorite fall soup. Garlic, leek, celery, potato....

I keep garlic in a wicker basket in the pantry. When it starts trying to sprout I'll roast cloves and freeze them on trays, then bag up. We also slice in FP and dehydrate....it rehydrates almost like fresh. Oh, and I'll can a few batches of roasted tomato garlic soup.

This is the first year in I'll have more than just planting stock since our vole infestation a few years ago took 500 bulbs. The population explosion must be over...I planted a hundred cloves and got a hundred plants. Making garlic scape mustard tomorrow.

Annie, a year! I've kept Music until May and thought that was something. The last year I had a real harvest I had one called Estonian Red that kept a little longer, also has huge cloves that peel easily. The !$^*)#! voles left me one bulb, which gave me 30 plants this year.

Yup, KatieC, a year. I still have a few of the bulbs from last year's harvest, and I just pulled the last of this year's bulbs yesterday. So, an entire year. They are getting the beginning of green sprouts in the center, which I remove before using the garlic, but the cloves were so nice and big that there is still plenty left after cutting a clove in half and taking out that center sprout.

Here I plant in October and harvest the first part of July. So last year's garlic kept from July 2021 until now.

Ugh, voles. I did have the squirrels dig up several cloves, but they didn't eat them, and I was lucky enough to check at just the right time and find them lying on the ground scattered about the "garlic patch". I promptly replanted and they were mostly fine. Apparently the squirrels didn't like them after they dug them up.

I remember the year you sent me about a dozen varieties. I carefully planted and labelled them, then the girls helped me hang them in the garage to dry. Without a single tag on them, LOL, so I couldn't figure out which one was which. They were all good, though!

Annie