5 Easy Ways to Use Your Garlic Harvest

Garlic is a relatively easy and low maintenance crop to grow, and once you start growing it successfully, you may never need to buy seed garlic again! It multiplies year after year meaning you can go from 50 bulbs to 1,000 in just a couple of years. So what can you do with 500 bulbs of garlic? Especially since each bulb may have 4-10 cloves, meaning you could possibly have thousands of cloves to work with. 

Here are 5 easy ideas for getting through your garlic stash! 

Store it

When cured, garlic can store for 6-9 months and even longer. This means you can have homegrown garlic through the summer, fall, winter, and spring without using any special preservation methods. This is the easiest way to use garlic, and a great option for a small harvest.

Preserve it

Have a big harvest of garlic or want to enjoy it in different ways? Preserving it can be a wonderful option, and there are so many ways to do so. Dehydrating, freezing, pickling, and fermenting are all options. Here are some options to consider:

• Garlic powder
• Garlic salt
• Garlic chips
• Frozen cloves
• Frozen garlic butter
• Pickled garlic
• Fermented honey garlic
• Fire Cider
• Garlic pesto
• Garlic scape pesto
• Garlic confit

Plant it

Want to plant garlic again? Always save the best and the biggest bulbs and cloves for planting in the fall. Plants have genetics just like animals and people do, so consider saving the best, healthiest, most uniform garlic heads and cloves for planting.

To prepare garlic for planting, all you have to do is store the garlic as if you were going to use it for fresh eating, just make sure to leave the protective garlic skin on the head. When getting ready to plant you're going to divide the cloves, leaving the protective skin on, and then plant those individually. More on planting garlic soon!

Didn't have a good garlic crop? Avoid saving it for planting and find a local organic supplier instead. Make sure you look for seed garlic to ensure you have the best crop for planting.

Sell it

There are two ways to sell garlic, as seed garlic, or as culinary garlic. Seed garlic should be the most superior of your garlic crop. Big, uniform bulbs and cloves, and ensure they are disease and pest free. 

You can also sell garlic as culinary garlic. Regular-sized garlic bulbs work. It is important if you choose to sell it as seed or culinary garlic, that you have taken the right steps to preserve and store it properly. 

Pricing

For seed garlic, you could price between $20 - $30 per lb. for organic, large or extra large bulbs/cloves. 

For culinary garlic, pricing is likely lower. Anywhere from $3/bulb to $5/bulb, or around $15 - $20 per lb. 

Share it or Trade it

Still have garlic you want to use up? Consider sharing it with friends and family, or find local farmers/gardeners who would like to made a trade, trading garlic for onions, potatoes, or other storage crops. Or even trading for things like maple syrup or honey. 

You can share garlic as-is or you can preserve it as garlic powder or salt and gift it to friends or family during the holidays. Who wouldn't love homemade garlic powder with homegrown onions as a Christmas present?! 

Enjoy these tips? Have more to add? Comment below and share your ideas. 

Happy Gardening!!
Jenn