Thursday, September 25, 2014

Canning and Planting Garlic


Last week Maid Elizabeth brought home a grocery bag full of garlic that was a gift from a local gentleman.  Since we don't have a root cellar, I immediately made plans to can this wonderful bounty, foreseeing tidy rows of minced garlic in my future. 

This morning, as I began separating the cloves, preparing for a full day of canning, an idea happened upon me - why didn't I plant some of these cloves so that we could enjoy our own homegrown garlic?

Seizing upon the idea, Miss Serenity, Maid Elizabeth and I quickly went to work.  First, we had to prepare garden beds.  Our soil is so lacking that we have to heavily amend it, so we trudged out to the compost pile and shoveled rich, black soil into the  wheel barrow.  After we dug compost into two separate raised beds, we were ready to plant. 

Garlic needs to be planted about two inches deep and four inches between cloves.  With three of us working, we had the raised beds planted in short order.  After a quick watering, we covered the newly planted garlic with mulch to keep it protected over the winter.

After planting the beds we were off to the kitchen for the real work.  We peeled garlic cloves one by one and soon had a bowl full of shiny, white garlic.  After washing the cloves, we pulsed them quickly in the blender (a few at a time) and put them in a pot.  After all the garlic was minced, we poured boiling water over the garlic (to quickly parboil it) and let it sit while we prepared the jars for canning.  We filled 1/2 pint jars with garlic and filled with the garlic liquid (that was poured over the garlic) to fill the jar to within 1/2 inch from the top (1/2 inch head space).  We put 1/2 tsp. of pickling salt in each jar (pickling salt doesn't have iodine in it, so it doesn't discolor the garlic while canning).  Putting Tatler lids on the jars, we put them into the pressure canner.

Freshly peeled garlic cloves

Mincing in the blender

We minced just a few at a time

A pot full of minced garlic

Covered in boiling water

We canned the garlic at 10 pounds of pressure for 45 minutes (same time and pressure as onions).  After processing, we pulled 6 beautiful 1/2 pint jars of minced garlic out of the canner. 

Jars of canned, minced garlic
Oh, how we'll enjoy this garlic throughout the year until we harvest our own flavorful garlic crop!

Until next time,

Enola

12 comments:

  1. Next time you have a lot of garlic to peel try this. http://www.marthastewart.com/932081/how-peel-garlic-easily#932081

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    1. Ok, that impressed me and I'm going to have to try it myself!

      Em

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  2. Hi,
    That's a great idea! I long a jar would be good after you open it? (Sorry for my English, I'm French)

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  3. What a wonderful gift! I'm a garlic fanatic. Pickling it is good also. I hang a bit of it down in the cellar where it's dry, and it lasts through the winter. Also, don't forget about the great scapes you'll be getting before your garlic is ready to harvest.

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  4. We pack ours in olive oil.

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  5. A root cellar is not the right solution for storing onions and garlic. They need cool (50 oF) and dry conditions. A proper root cellar is 80-90% relative humidity and very close to freezing...35 oF or so.

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  6. Enola,

    How wonderful Maid Elizabeth came home with this bounty. Have you tried roasting garlic, and placing it in canning jars with olive oil? I have seen jars in stores and at the farmers market. I don't know how long the garlic would last in olive oil.....it may need to be refrigerated. This is something I need to investigate.

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    1. It does not have to be refrigerated until opened.

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  7. I am so glad you decided to plant some! I do it every year since someone gave me one small heirloom Russian stiff-neck garlic bulb about 20 years ago. It multiplied and I replant it every year, giving at least 100 bulbs away from my small patch and saving quite a few myself to use and to replant. The trick is to plant the best looking cloves, not the small ones. You get what you plant. Plant the choicest cloves and you will have garlic forever.

    God Bless,
    Janet in MA

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  8. We've grown garlic the last two years, and will be planting more this year. I LOVE GARLIC. Fortunately, so does the rest of the family!

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  9. Thanks for sharing the idea! I am going to plant some more garlic and can some (for the first time).

    Em

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  10. Garlic is a gift from God on so many levels! Next time you have lots to peel, do this.......Put about 8 cloves of garlic in (I use my metal mixing bowls) on bowl, using two bowls the same size if possible, if not, then one a bit smaller than the other so they fit tightly together.

    Now, holding the bowls together, shake them up and down really fast for about 15 seconds. All that rattling around causes them to come right out of their skins! And it really works! If it didn't shake longer but still as hard. I was able to do 3 lbs so much faster than I ever thought and SO THANKFUL to have learned this useful trick.

    Blessings!

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