Any urban or rural resident needs vitamins, especially in winter. Garlic is of great help here. Everyone knows its benefits and taste, which largely depend on how the storage of garlic was organized.

The best ways to store garlic

Since ancient times, they tried to preserve the garlic harvest by simply braiding the braids: the tops are completely removed, only the stalk and the head itself remain, and for strength you can weave a strong rope, the braid ends in a loop. Such structures can be stored suspended in closets, closets, basements, even under the ceiling, without taking up much space.

An analogue of the braid is a bundle, which is tied from long stalks of garlic and also hung on the wall. You can put garlic heads in nets.

Our grandmothers, who knew how to store garlic correctly and conveniently, preferred to put the harvested harvest in wicker birch bark baskets and place them in the attic. Such conditions and container material significantly increased the keeping quality of garlic and made it possible to use last year's harvest until the new harvest.

Garlic braids

Modern housewives prefer glass jars to baskets. They should be sterilized in advance, and the garlic heads, without getting rid of the scales, should be dried, cleaned of traces of soil and other contaminants, sprinkled with coarse table salt and completely filled with them in the prepared container. This method reliably protects garlic from diseases during the entire storage period. Instead of cans, it is permissible to use boxes made of wood of medium depth. Instead of salt, some experienced vegetable growers recommend using ordinary fine millet.

Note! Watch out for mice that can ruin the "storage".

Sometimes the heads are sprinkled with flour in layers.

You can try how to store garlic in bags of coarse natural linen, after carefully drying the heads and shifting them with onion husks. If the bookmark is carried out correctly and on time, this saving method will avoid damage to a valuable vegetable by pathogenic pests.

The next option, which ensures the long-term preservation of the garlic harvest, is the boxes made of boards, which have holes for ventilation. An even layer of ordinary table salt is poured into them, garlic heads are laid on top and sprinkled with another 1-2 centimeter salt layer. And so, alternating, the whole box is filled - the garlic store.

Housewives are trying different ways to preserve garlic so that the efforts in the gardens spent on growing it do not go to waste. The choice of a specific method is also determined by the climatic conditions under which this vegetable grew.

Glass jars are suitable for storing garlic

How to store young garlic and how to process it

Spring garlic - what is it

Young garlic cloves and green feathers are very delicate and pleasant to the taste, and not as pungent as the mature heads, they are often used in salads and meat dishes. Unfortunately, it has a tendency to disappear very quickly, so it will not work to stock it up for future use, but if there is such a desire, it is necessary to decide how to store this young garlic for at least some time.

Green arrows can be corked in a marinade in glass jars, you can make homemade preparations from young garlic heads in the same way, then winter will be provided with a tasty and healthy seasoning for dishes.

To get good material for workpieces, several recommendations must be followed. Young garlic should be dug out during the wet period, otherwise the greens will taste hot and the cloves in the heads will be small and tough. If the weather is dry and the young garlic is ready to be harvested, you can arrange artificial hydration by watering the beds abundantly every two to three days. If the water after irrigation does not immediately leave the soil surface inward, then the garlic will turn out to be large and juicy.
It is recommended to marinate or sourdough on the day of collection, otherwise the heads will lose more than 25% moisture and will be dry and pointed.

Green arrows can be corked in marinade in glass jars

Winter garlic can help save common sunflower oil. The teeth should be freed from the skin, filled with them in a glass (preferably sterilized) jar, shaken well for better density, filled to the top with oil and screw the lid back on immediately.

Important! There must be holes in the lid for free "breathing" of the stored product. With this method, young garlic can stand for quite a long time, and the oil will acquire a tempting smell and will resemble summer.

You can also solve the problem of how to preserve young garlic from spring until the new harvest by treating the garlic with molten paraffin. Young heads are dipped in paraffin from ordinary candles and the mixture is allowed to drain. Such processing forms a protective film that prevents the product from drying out, germinating or deteriorating under the influence of parasites. Previously, this method was only an industrial storage option - in vegetable stores and made it possible to save garlic for the retail network for more than six months.

Experts recommend, before using any chosen method, that like in spring or summer save winter garlic, process the heads with the following mixture:

  • natural vegetable oil calcined for 40-60 minutes;
  • iodine, in the ratio of 10 drops in half a liter of oil.

After processing, the garlic should dry well in the sun. Any of the methods of storing such garlic can show a much better result in terms of duration than without processing.

How to keep garlic from drying out during winter storage

How to grow large garlic in the garden

With a relatively long storage and non-observance of the storage rules, the harvested garlic can overtake such a nuisance as drying - evaporation of all or most of the moisture from the cloves. Why can garlic dry when stored? Due to improper organization of storage space and untimely harvest. First of all, it is necessary to organize storage so that not a single technological condition is violated. The paraffin already described above helps. It promotes the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the vegetable from the respiration of the plant, which is the best prevention of diseases.

Also, vegetable oil poured into jars with cloves of garlic will help from drying, after which they need to be placed in the refrigerator or basement (if any). Table salt is another remedy to prevent the garlic crop from drying out; it must also be poured into jars with cloves and tightly closed with lids.

Table salt helps preserve garlic

Rules and guidelines for preserving garlic

Decorative garlic - planting and care

The best place to store this valuable vegetable is in a special storage facility with a temperature not exceeding 3 degrees Celsius (and not lower than 1 degrees) and a relative humidity of about 90 percent. You can use a potato storage for these purposes.

If a gardener has a private house, it will not be difficult to equip a basement for storing garlic wealth, but suitable conditions can be organized even if there is an ordinary city apartment.

Of course, in a multi-storey building, there are a lot of heating devices, but you can choose a storage that is as protected as possible from heating:

  • storage room;
  • refrigerator;
  • insulated (but unheated) balcony or loggia.

It is better to put garlic in the refrigerator, after wiping it for dryness and distributing it in paper bags, carefully salting it. The basic rule is not to store garlic together with other vegetables, then they will last until spring comes with a new garlic harvest.

Storage room

Peeled cloves can be frozen by wrapping them in cling foil or plastic wrap. Experts recommend for long-term (about 4 months) storage to process the garlic into spices in finely chopped form.

The main requirements for proper and long-term storage of garlic are: a constantly ventilated, sterile room (place) with low humidity and temperatures close to zero. There are differences in the timing of the keeping quality of winter (harvested at the end of July) and spring (harvested in mid-August) garlic: the first one can last a maximum until the New Year, the second even until the next harvest.

The key to successful storage is the right time to collect raw materials. So, garlic should be picked only in dry weather, preferably in the evening. The heads should be allowed to dry in the air for several days, protecting them from the sun's rays. Only then proceed to processing for storage. The roots should be trimmed, burned with an open fire, only two centimeters should be left from the stem.

Another trick is that it is best to store the heads with three covering scales for storage, they will stay much longer. The surface of the garlic should be intact, without cracks. During storage, it is necessary to monitor the condition of the heads, immediately get rid of rotten, soft, wrinkled or spotted specimens.

If sap flow began from excess moisture in the garlic, and seedlings appeared, for some time it can still be preserved by cutting off the sprouts and removing the heads in a colder and darker storage.

Any housewife who uses this valuable vegetable in cooking asks herself the question of how to save the vitamin harvest of garlic from the country house or bought on the market. Observing the recommendations of experts, you can ensure that there will always be fragrant and healthy garlic dishes on the table, right up to the new fresh harvest.