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The end of summer usually finds my kitchen in a glut of harvested fruits and vegetables, and by the time I preserve all of it, the last thing I feel like doing is heading back into the garden to plant crops for winter and the following spring. But the one herb that I always, always plant is garlic.
Growing up, my familiarity with garlic was limited to the topping on buttered bread we had alongside spaghetti. My husband initially taught me how to use it; he had learned about store bought jars of crushed garlic and how to use that at the restaurant he cooked at. So we brought jars of crushed garlic and made our own buttered garlic bread. Not a great leap by any means into cooking with herbs, but a little toe tap in the right direction. Little toe taps still move you forward.
I never considered garlic as a medicinal herb until I read Lalitha Thomas’ book 10 Essential Herbs. It was one of the first herb books I ever bought, and still sits on my shelf as a treasured resource. Most of the herbs in the book can be found at the grocery store, so it was an encouraging step into the unknown.
Garlic, as you may know, is very warming and drying. It is antimicrobial, antibiotic, fungicidal, a circulatory stimulant, and given enough dosage over time, can bring down high blood pressure and even lower cholesterol. The strong immune response that garlic offers is most potent when it is fresh, but like most herbs and foods, they do have their seasons of growing and harvest. I like to grow my own garlic for much of the same reasons I grow some of my own other food and medicine: it is organic, grown in living soil under conditions I can (mostly) control, and of course it is the freshest possible when all it takes to procure it, whatever “it” is, is taking a few steps outside of my kitchen door.
Garlic is my first thought for any respiratory condition, and if I feel a cold coming on, I eat and swallow an entire clove multiple times a day. It makes an excellent oil for earaches. One of my sons suffered from recurring earaches; all it took to soothe him and to overcome the infection was one or two crushed cloves of garlic warmed (and then strained from) a small amount of olive oil. He never needed an antibiotic. I didn’t appreciate exactly how wonderful this worked until the day came where I, myself, needed it for ear pain. The relief was immediate.
I love growing garlic! Late summer to early fall is the time I plant garlic cloves, roots down. In my 9ish zone, I typically plant mid to end October for a July harvest. Last year, I didn’t get my cloves into the ground until November, and even with the light frost, they did well. Now is the time to find fresh garlic from your farmer’s market or other grower, but if you missed your window, you can use organic garlic bulbs from the grocery store, especially if they have a variety that you enjoy the spice level and taste of. I recently learned that garlic is a companion plant to raspberry, so that will be an interesting experiment this upcoming season.
If you can harvest, or find, your own bunch of fresh garlic, keep in mind that it takes a few weeks to cure before using them. You can’t just pull garlic from the ground and use it right away (or maybe you could, I don’t make the rules). I cure my garlic for several weeks, outside in dry conditions, in the shade.
The form of garlic I am best able to keep in my home (other than softnecked garlic* for whole, fresh form) is powdered. I actually prefer to use powdered, as I often find green shoots growing within cloves too soon or even from the ones at the grocery store, and I don’t care for the bland flavor or texture once that happens.
This is how you make your own powder. You will need a dehydrator, a food processor, and a decent blender. We use an Excalibur dehydrator, and it works marvelously. I probably don’t have to tell you how amazing a Vitamix blender is. I first learned how to dry garlic from Herrick Kimball, and if you are at all interested in a very thorough explanation of how to grow, harvest, and powder your own garlic, this little booklet is a real gem.
After the roots are cut short, and the bulbs are cured, dirt easily brushes from the heads. Never ever dunk your garlic bulbs or cloves in water!
The first step is to separate the cloves. If you have a large harvest like I did, this step alone takes a few hours. Actually, all of the steps, though easy, do take time. But it is worth it, and none of the steps are particularly urgent to finish in one setting. Once the cloves are separated, I slice through the paper wrapper on the fat side, and set it on the tray. I dry them all at 115 degrees overnight. Prepare for your house to smell like an Italian restaurant (mmm….)
The next step is of course to remove the wrappers, which having dried out a bit is a whole lot easier. There is no need to rinse the cloves; most of the dirt was brushed off when the heads were whole, and the paper wrappers kept the cloves clean.
Next it is time to slice! This takes almost no time at all with a food processor. After slicing, you will find the pieces slightly tacky. Ideally, all of these pieces would be in single layers. But, seriously, I’m a busy mom and cannot spend upteen hours making everything perfect. It’s enough that I grew it all, right? Back into the dehydrator, at 115 degrees, overnight. More Italian restaurant smell. Every year I wonder if just inhaling the scent of all of this garlic is helping with overall respiratory health, but who can know.
The key to know if it is ready to powder is if the slices are DRY, and by dry I mean “chippy”. You should be able to take a slice and snap it in half. If any of it is at all bendy, back into the dehydrator it goes.
Once finished, you can store all of these chips as is! Throw them into soups and stews and even into a mug of hot water for stimulating tea. Keep them in a cool, dry location.
To dry them into powder, simply put about a cup’s worth of dried chips into the blender at a time, and blend on high. PLEASE NOTE: keep the lid ON for a minute while the powder settles or you will not only have the smell of an Italian restaurant, but clouds of garlic power wafting throughout your kitchen. Do not ask me how I know this, just trust me and open the lid carefully after a minute or so.
I like to sift my garlic powder afterwards. That is how you end up with (a) powdered garlic and (b) dried minced garlic. You can always throw the minced garlic back in for another blend, but then what would you put on your home baked bagels?
Carefully pour/rubber spatula scrape into jars. I like to put a small piece of bread right on top, to absorb any wetness that may remain. Store in a cool, dry place.
Trust me, if you do this once, it will be ridiculously difficult to buy powdered garlic from the store ever again. And then, like the mouse chasing a cookie, you will wonder what fresh rosemary really tastes like or what difference homegrown and dried oregano makes in your cooking. I do not apologize for sending you down these herbal trails.
BUT STOP!! Do NOT clean out your blender jar! PLEASE! All of that good, powdered garlic still clinging to the sides: do not let it go to waste.
Simply pour in a couple cups of tomato sauce (don’t get me started on homegrown tomatoes), as many sprigs of oregano or basil as you wish, and give it a whirl. You’ll thank me later when you make pizza with it.
It’s not too late (for us, anyway!) to plant garlic for next year. I initially got my bulbs here but you can probably find other quality growers for your own gardening zones.
Buon appetito!
*Softnecked garlic is a better keeper in its whole form than hardnecked garlic; that is the variety you usually find braided. But I do love the scapes that come from hardnecked garlic as it grows, so that is what I typically plant and use.
I love my home grown garlic! I never seem to plant enough and I almost always wait almost too long to plant it, but it still manages to work! 😊 I’ve read before when you talked about making your own garlic powder and always wanted to try it. We go through a lot a garlic powder, so it would be a lovely experiment. Maybe this will be the year. But as my seventh baby is due tomorrow….. maybe next year will be the year lol