Garlic is a specific crop, the entire crop of which probably cannot be eaten at once, which means that it will have to be stored. It is necessary to organize the conditions for lying in winter so that the garlic does not begin to rot and does not dry out. This can be done in a home or country basement, cellar, on the balcony or loggia of the apartment. The process is simple, it is important to remember some features.
How to prepare garlic for storage
Since ancient times, garlic hung in the winter in rooms or in the attic of houses in the form of braids. This method of storage was very popular in Russia. But he's not the only one. The most important condition for long and high-quality storage of garlic is its proper cleaning:
- terms - until the leaves turn yellow and the heads crack;
- drying - in a shaded place closed from moisture;
- selection - only healthy heads, as diseased ones will infect the rest of the crop.
Attention! Harvesting time for spring garlic is the beginning of August, for winter garlic - the second half of July.
For harvesting, it is important to choose a dry day so that clods of dirt with viruses and bacteria do not stick to the heads. It is best to work in the morning or evening before the sun begins to heat up. Leave the heads to dry for a couple of days from soil dampness. In this case, the sun's rays should not fall on the crop. After that, start drying:
- cut the roots with a knife;
- cauterize the head with fire on both sides;
- cut off the stem, leaving a 2 cm section from the head.
Dry the garlic well before storing.
Another important condition for the long preservation of garlic is its proper preparation. After drying, process the crop:
- Prepare a solution according to the recipe: mix 10 drops of iodine in 0.5 liters of calcined vegetable oil.
- Carefully process the heads.
- Discuss again. This time you can in the sun.
Advice. Heads that do not pass the selection can be crushed and dried or frozen in the freezer as a condiment.
Preparing a place to store garlic
Storage standards for any type of garlic are a dry place and a temperature of + 3 ... + 5 ° С. Permissible minimum - 0°С. If the thermometer drops below, the garlic will freeze. Because of this, the taste will deteriorate and vitamins will be lost. Other conditions for the good preservation of garlic:
- humidity at the level of 50-80%;
- the absence of spoiled vegetables and fungus on the walls and ceiling in the room;
- good circulation fresh air.
Attention! These conditions are relevant for any room. It does not matter where you intend to keep the harvest: on the balcony of a high-rise building or in the cellar of a private house.
To prepare a cellar or basement for storing garlic, it should be carefully inspected. If you find a small amount of mold - clean the area manually, if there is a lot of fungus - use a smoke bomb. Cleaning the mold will not completely solve the problem. If this appears, then you need to work on ventilation. Also examine the premises for the presence of rodents and harmful insects. If they are, process the cellar or set traps.
It is important that the garlic storage area is well ventilated.
Boxes are most often used to store garlic on a balcony or loggia. In this case, the room must be glazed. It is also better to insulate it, protecting it from a critical drop in temperature. Control the ingress of precipitation from an open window during storage. All methods of storing garlic are relevant for both the loggia and the cellar.
Features of storing garlic at home
Surely garlic will not be the only crop that is stored in the basement or on the loggia. However, garlic heads will not feel comfortable with all vegetables and root crops:
- It is undesirable to store cabbage, beets, potatoes and carrots next to them.
- Onion has a positive effect on him. Cultures can even be stored in one container.
Advice. If the garlic cannot be stored away from the vegetables that affect it badly, hang the heads up.
Ways to store garlic at home
For this culture, people have come up with several ways of storage. One of them is boxes or containers. Use wooden, plywood or cardboard boxes. They must have air holes. You can not put garlic in a plastic container. Pour whole heads into the box and sprinkle them with flour or salt.
Attention! The filler must be dry. In the case of flour, this is easy to determine by eye. Salt may have to be additionally calcined in a pan or in the oven.
A wicker basket can easily act as a substitute for a box. It just has suitable holes for air circulation. The basket doesn't have to be big. You can take a few small ones, as long as they contain your crop.
Housewives often use 3-liter jars. They can be filled with both whole heads and cloves peeled from the husk. Salt or oil is used as a filler that will protect garlic from moisture. You can also keep garlic clean by controlling the humidity with a lid.
Garlic will keep well even in a regular jar.
Cheap, simple and time-tested way - nylon tights as a container. The material consists of many small holes, so it is able to breathe. Just place the garlic inside and hang the pantyhose from a nail under the ceiling. Instead of a women's accessory, you can use a net for storing vegetables or keep garlic hanging and without containers. For this, a braid is woven from it, twisting the stems with twine or an ordinary rope. The pigtail can organically merge into the interior of the room.
If the garlic sprouts during storage, fill it sunflower oil. It is also used to preserve garlic. The culture storage process is simple: keep the heads dry and monitor the temperature. Then the harvest will be perfectly preserved for a long time.
Garlic is a fragrant spice that will make any dish more appetizing and tastier, and also a wonderful natural remedy for colds and viral infections. Planting and growing odorous garden culture are not accompanied by special difficulties. It is much more difficult to solve the problem of how to store garlic at home in an apartment so that most of the crop does not go into the bin in winter. Careful storage of garlic is largely ensured by timely and high-quality cleaning.
Don't miss the deadline
There are two varieties of garlic: winter and spring garlic (summer), which is planted in the ground in spring. It usually ripens, depending on climatic and weather conditions, by mid-August. Its maturity is determined by the yellow fallen leaves. The same factor also indicates the readiness of winter garlic, as well as cracks on the stems near the inflorescences and the scales covering the heads. If they are thin and fit snugly to the bulb, then winter garlic reached the condition, it's time to start cleaning. Remove it from the beds in early July.
It is advisable not to delay the harvesting campaign, overripe winter and spring garlic have a low keeping quality. In addition, the quality of the product deteriorates. The heads look sloppy: the lobules disintegrate, the scales peel off, fresh roots are visible on the bases of the bulbs (bottoms). Long-term storage of garlic in this form, without processing (preservation) is impossible.
Remove by all means
How to store garlic at home in an apartment if it was damaged during cleaning? Put in the refrigerator and eat quickly. True, this is unlikely to succeed if there are many rejected fruits. To prevent this from happening, the heads are dug up not with a shovel, but with a pitchfork. Shake off the ground, carefully clean with your hands and lay out to dry. The sun's rays kill fungal spores and harmful bacteria. After such disinfection, you don’t have to worry about how to keep the garlic from mold and rot. Bulbs should bask in the sun for at least 5-6 days. In the evening they are brought into a warm, dry room. 
Garlic, unlike other vegetables, is dried right with the stems. They are cut later (after 2 weeks), leaving necks 3-4 cm long for winter and up to 15 cm for spring garlic bulbs. This difference is caused by one of the old ways of preserving garlic for the winter and decorating the interior of the kitchen.
How to store spring garlic
It is not difficult for him to find a comfortable place for wintering in a city apartment. Three conditions are important: the air temperature is 15-20 degrees, the humidity is from 50 to 70% and the absence of light, which can “wake up” the capricious spice at the wrong time. Storage of garlic harvested at the end of summer is carried out in the pantry, toilet, lower shelf kitchen table. 
The "grandmother's" way of how to store garlic at home in an apartment has proven itself well, without resorting to additional tricks. Heads with the help of long stems and twine (rope) are braided into braids or wreaths. They were hung on the walls in the old days, as a decoration and a talisman from evil forces. So that the garlic does not dry out and does not become moldy, the surface of the heads is lubricated vegetable oil. It (200 ml) is boiled for half an hour, then seasoned with 3-4 drops of medical iodine. The only disadvantage of this method is the sticking of dust, which is not easy to get rid of.
The paraffin “shirt” protects garlic well from drying out and spoilage. To put such an “outfit” on the bulbs (7 kg), you will need approximately 270 g of candles. They are cut and melted in a water bath. When the composition cools down a bit, garlic heads are lowered into it for a second (so as not to boil). Then they are dried and stored in a shoe box, sprinkled with dry coniferous sawdust. Instead of paraffin, a two-layer wrapping with cling film is used, it is fixed on the necks of the bulbs.
How to store winter garlic
The same “warehousing” options are quite suitable for winter garlic, but he is an adherent of “cold”, and until the New Year it will not deteriorate only at 2-4 degrees Celsius. So you have to think about how to store garlic at home in an apartment that is not equipped with an insulated heated loggia. If the crop is small, it can be placed in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator, packed in canvas, paper or plastic bags (holes are made in them), interspersed with onion peel for reliability. By the way, so that winter garlic does not germinate, the bottoms are cauterized with a candle flame. 
The answer to the question of how to store garlic, many gardeners begin to look for after 2-3 unsuccessful attempts to preserve the crop. The secrets of how to keep garlic until spring were well known to our great-grandmothers, who managed to keep this healthy vegetable fresh even before the new harvest.
Things to Consider When Storing Garlic
There are many effective ways to store garlic at home. In order to choose the right one, you need to consider several important factors, which have a huge impact on the timing and quality of storage of garlic:
- kind of garlic;
- temperature;
- humidity;
- light;
- air access.
There are 2 varieties of garlic: winter, which is planted in late autumn (it is also sometimes called winter), and spring, which is planted in spring. Spring garlic has much more protective shells on cloves than winter garlic, so winter garlic dries faster, but at the same time it is more susceptible to rot and disease. As a result, at same conditions storage of winter garlic is stored much worse than spring.
These structural features of the winter and spring subspecies must be taken into account when solving the problem of how to store garlic at home. Spring garlic is best preserved at a temperature of 16–20 ° C and a humidity of 60–70%. In order not to dry out and rot winter garlic, it is necessary to maintain a temperature of 2-4 ° C and a humidity of 70-80% in the room.
Therefore, if you have to solve the problem of how to store garlic in a city apartment, then the best option there will be cultivation of the spring subspecies of this crop. In the private sector and rural houses with cellars or cellars for storing vegetables, the problem of how to store winter garlic can be successfully solved.
Preparing garlic for storage
Preparation of garlic for winter storage should begin immediately after harvesting. The dug up plants are placed for 10-12 days under an open canopy, where air circulates freely. If possible and the weather permits, then it is better to leave them first for 3-4 days under open sky to dry well in the sun, and then move under a canopy. In no case should this procedure be neglected, since this technique allows you to get rid of the remnants of the earth on the garlic heads, and ultraviolet light kills most of the bacteria and fungi on plants that cause crop rotting.
After drying the plants, you can continue preparing for the storage of garlic. First, the roots of dried heads are almost completely cut off with sharp scissors or secateurs, leaving no more than 3-4 mm at the base of the stem. In most cases, they do the same with the stems, shortening them to a small tail of 2–2.5 cm. Simultaneously with cutting, the damaged heads are also culled. If the head itself breaks up into separate cloves or there are cracked scales on the cloves, it is useless to lay such heads for storage.
To provide better storage garlic in winter, you can burn the remains of the roots with an open fire. Previously, a lit candle was used for such cauterization, but now a faster and more practical tool can be used for this - an ordinary pocket lighter.
Choosing the optimal storage location
When solving the problem of how to store, we must not forget about another problem - where to store garlic. Regardless of the storage method chosen, it must be borne in mind that garlic does not like light and does not tolerate direct sunlight, so you need to prepare a darkened, or even better, completely dark place.
Relatively recently, there were only 2 storage options: either in the closet or in the basement. But with the development of technology, new opportunities appear, and today housewives have learned how to successfully store this healthy vegetable in their refrigerators or in glass jars.
When deciding how to store garlic for the winter, it is imperative to take into account the level of humidity in the future storage location. It is moisture that often causes good, selected garlic to quickly begin to deteriorate. At high humidity, its cloves will rot, and at low humidity, they will dry out.
Storage in pigtails and canvas bags
The only way to store garlic in an apartment, in which the stem is not shortened, but only the leaves are removed, are pigtails. This is one of the oldest ways to store garlic for the winter at home.
It is quite laborious, so today it is used relatively rarely. Leaves are removed from drying garlic, and the stems are woven into small pigtails. Anyone who is familiar with the technique of weaving a braid or a wreath will easily master this method.
Tied into small - 20–25 plants each - garlic wreaths are hung from the ceiling in the pantry or in the closet. Many housewives, weaving such a garlic wreath, for greater strength and convenience, weave into it a thin twine with a loop at the end, for which it is convenient to hang.
Since there are practically no dark closets and pantries in modern city apartments, there are many other effective ways to store garlic in an apartment. The easiest of them is storage in small canvas bags.
Small canvas bags are pre-soaked in saline, then dried. The drying bag retains salt crystals on its walls, which will later kill harmful bacteria and take excess moisture from the heads.
8–10 heads of garlic are placed in such bags, tied and hung around the apartment in those places where the most suitable temperature regime and no direct sunlight. This method not only allows you to optimally solve the question of how to store garlic in the winter in an apartment, but also to show your design abilities by decorating a room interior with such bags.
Storing garlic in the refrigerator and in a glass jar
The debate about whether garlic can be stored in the refrigerator has been going on for years. It is clear that it cannot be stored either in the freezer or under it in the refrigerator itself. But on the shelf, the most distant from the freezer, the conditions for storing the winter subspecies are close to optimal.
Why do many housewives categorically do not recognize this method of storage? The fact is that when storing even a relatively small (40–50 heads) amount, the refrigerator is saturated with a persistent garlic smell for a long time, which is transferred to other products.
However, there was a way to store garlic in the refrigerator, eliminating the specific smell. More precisely, this method of storage appeared long before the creation of the refrigerator, and folk ingenuity simply improved it.
Well-dried heads are disassembled into individual cloves, along the way, rejecting all that cause at least the slightest suspicion of depravity. The teeth are dried for an additional 1-2 days in the sun, and then put into 3-liter jars and closed with nylon lids.
Garlic cloves folded in a jar are placed in a cool dark place. The refrigerator is perfect for this, because:
- stable temperature;
- stable humidity;
- lack of light.
All conditions for long-term high-quality storage. And the annoying garlic smell remains inside the glass jar.
If you are still opposed to storing garlic in the refrigerator, then you can use another method. The jar must first be sterilized, then pour salt (1.5–2 cm) on the bottom, lay a layer of well-dried cloves on top, fill them with salt again and fill the entire container layer by layer, but with the obligatory condition that there is salt at the top.
Storage in boxes and boxes
Most of the methods described allow you to store a small amount of garlic. If you need to store a lot of heads, then it is most convenient to do this in boxes or boxes that can be stacked so that they do not take up much space. But, choosing this method, you need to know how to properly store garlic, otherwise you can lose the entire crop in 2 weeks.
By analogy with storage in a jar, heads in boxes or boxes are kept in layers, necessarily carefully covered with some kind of bulk material. A layer of such material 4–5 cm thick is poured onto the bottom, then garlic is laid out, the heads are poured on top, and so the box or box is filled. The laying must be completed with a layer of overfill. You can use table salt, flour, ash, sawdust, etc.
Preference should be given to wooden or plywood boxes. Cardboard boxes are less suitable for this purpose, because if stored for a long time at a humidity above 75%, the cardboard can soften and tear.
Sealed storage methods
There are several ways that are based on creating around each garlic head protective film. The oldest of these methods is the use of paraffin. The heads are alternately immersed in liquid paraffin melted in a water bath, and then left to dry for 2–3 hours, carefully making sure that the treated heads do not touch each other.
Then the processed heads are placed in wooden boxes or glass jars, and the vegetable can be stored even at room temperature - the frozen paraffin film reliably protects the teeth from drying out and protects against bacteria and rot. To process 10 kg of heads, 450–500 g of paraffin is needed and, depending on skill, 35–45 minutes of the time spent.
With cling film, a new storage method has also appeared: each head is carefully wrapped in 2 layers of this material and placed in cardboard boxes or glass jars, covered with fine sawdust for greater reliability.
Unusual ways to store garlic
Along with the traditional, there are several unusual ways to store garlic. Some of them are no longer used, while others are only gaining popularity.
In the old days, rural residents of the central regions of Ukraine often used the attics of their dwellings to store garlic. A layer of chaff (chopped and dried straw or grass) 20–25 cm thick was poured into the attic in the area of the chimney, garlic was laid out in one layer on it and sprinkled again with a sex thickness of at least 50 cm on top. In such a kind of thermos, the garlic was perfectly preserved until spring, and the spring subspecies - up to the new harvest.
Why is garlic not stored like this now? In the old days, the roofs of houses were covered mainly with straw, which almost does not let cold, heat, or moisture through, so almost ideal conditions for storing garlic were created in the attic under such a roof. With the disappearance of thatched roofs, this method has ceased to be used, but today, with the advent of fashion for the construction of antique houses, it is worth taking note of it.
Another method that is actively gaining supporters today is storage in oil. Peeled garlic cloves are placed in a 3-liter jar or deep saucepan and poured with vegetable oil. Olive oil is best suited for this, but sunflower or corn can also be used. Top the dishes with a tight lid and leave in a cool dark place.
This method not only allows you to keep the vegetable fresh for 3-4 months, but also makes it possible to make a good sauce for dressing the first and second courses. All you need to do to prepare such a sauce is to add the necessary spices to the oil infused with garlic. But this method also has a minus: not only the oil absorbs the garlic taste and smell. Garlic preserved in this way is also saturated with the smell and aroma of oil, so its taste will be specific.
Another way, which is a direct consequence of technological progress, is the use of special vacuum canning lids for storage purposes. Well-dried heads are put into glass jars, covered with these lids and air is pumped out of the container. Placed in a cool, dark place, garlic in such jars can be kept fresh for up to 5 months.
Alternative storage methods
The most popular of these methods is the storage of garlic in ground form. Usually, healthy cloves from spoiled heads are stored this way. The teeth are cleaned and ground in a meat grinder, then salt is added to the resulting mass, put in a glass jar and covered with a nylon lid. Depending on the conditions, such garlic mass can be stored for 1 to 2 months.
Another method, far superior in terms of storage time to the first, is the preparation of garlic powder. Peeled garlic cloves are cut into thin slices and sent to an electric dryer at a temperature of 60 ° C. Then the dried plates are crushed into powder using a blender or manually in a mortar, salt is added during the grinding process.
To store such garlic powder, you can use any dish with a tight-fitting lid. Such a powder can be stored for a year, leaving the taste and aroma unchanged all this time. The only but significant drawback of this method is that when dried, garlic loses almost all of its beneficial properties.
no matter how reliable and effective method storage you choose, do not forget that there is always the possibility of failure. You should not be upset about this, you just need to analyze your work, find errors and prevent them from happening in the future. And in order not to lose the entire crop due to mistakes, it is better to divide it into 3-4 parts and save it in different ways.
Garlic is an important ingredient in many appetizers, soups, vegetable stews, cereals, salads and sauces. It gives them a pleasant aroma, pungency and piquancy, so you can’t do without it in the kitchen. Knowing how to store garlic, you can save it in its original form for the whole winter and use it on the menu. all year round.
The intricacies of preparing garlic for storage should be considered even during the harvest period.
There are several varieties of garlic, so you need to understand the timing and features of each of them:
- Spring or summer. Collected in the first half of August, when the leaves turn completely yellow and begin to fall on the ground. Can be stored even until the next harvest.
- Winter. It reaches maturity in the middle of summer, when the leaves begin to turn yellow, the scales become thinner and the skin of the inflorescences cracks. Stored at low temperatures.
It is very important not to miss the digging period: if the heads break up into cloves, then they are no longer suitable for long-term storage. Ideal for storage, the onion is dry, hard, has 3-4 layers of protective husks, and the slices are well separated from each other. Wet husks are a sign that the culture is not yet ready for harvest.
Harvesting should be carried out only in dry weather, in the morning or evening hours. When digging, you need to be careful not to damage the heads with the tip of a shovel or fork. Damaged garlic is not suitable for long-term storage.
The harvested crop must be dried under a canopy. If the heads are planned to be stored in braids, then the stems are not cut off. In all other cases, the stems must be cut with sharp scissors at a distance of 1.5 cm from the beginning of the neck, and the roots removed with secateurs. In no case should you leave shrunken, damaged, diseased heads.
If part of the harvest is not suitable for long-term storage, do not be upset. Such heads can be crushed, dried, or frozen. Garlic harvested in this form is very convenient to use, but loses a little in taste, as freezing affects both the taste and the consistency of the product. It is better to freeze garlic in crushed form and in small portions. It is advisable to store such blanks in two bags, otherwise the products in the freezer will acquire a characteristic smell.
Treatment with a special solution gives a good result: 10 drops of iodine are added to half a liter of calcined vegetable oil and each head is dipped into it. After that, the processed crop can be saved in any convenient way.
Optimal storage conditions
How to store garlic so that it does not dry out? It is best stored in a cold place. The temperature should range from +3 to +5. If the harvest is folded in a warm place, this will lead to drying out of the heads and their deterioration.
The optimum humidity should not exceed 80%. But excessive dryness is also harmful, as the heads will begin to dry out. Therefore, you need to know how to store garlic so that it does not dry out and does not rot. By observing these conditions, you can save the collected raw materials in private buildings in the pantry, basement, attic and even in the apartment.
A prerequisite is a dark place. When exposed to light, the cloves will begin to sprout.
Periodically harvested crop need to be reviewed in order to remove rotten bulbs in time. Their presence is very easy to determine by the characteristic bad smell. Damage to the heads occurs due to infection with a fungus and non-compliance with storage requirements.
Ways to store garlic at home
Garlic can be stored not only separately, but also together with onions in small rag bags, wooden boxes and cardboard boxes. If the crop is planned to be stored in the cellar, you need to take care of good ventilation. Constant circulation of fresh air successful storage the entire crop.
In glass jars or boxes
It is quite convenient to store garlic in a jar. The selected heads must be disassembled into slices and dried in the room. Then fold into a container and, without clogging, leave in a dry room.
Boxes made of wood or plywood are the most popular storage containers. The main thing is that they have holes for air circulation.
Rules for storage in the refrigerator
Garlic keeps very well in the refrigerator. The only negative is that there is often no free space in it. Dry the selected heads and put them in paper bags. If there is excess salt or dry onion peel, it can also be added inside, this improves the quality of storage.
in salt
Many positive reviews heard about the method of storage in salt. Salt should be poured onto the bottom of the plywood container, then one layer of sorted and dried heads should be laid out. You need to make sure that they do not have points of contact with each other. The previous layer is laid out only after filling the previous one with salt. No more than 5 layers of garlic can be stored in one box. Instead of boxes, you can take glass containers, but this is not so convenient.
Garlic mass through a meat grinder
This method is most often used at the first sign of spoilage. Rotten or overdried slices should be thrown away, and the remaining ones should be cleaned and passed through a meat grinder. Salt the garlic mass, mix, transfer to jars and cork. Keep refrigerated.
Purified storage technology
Peeled garlic is very convenient to use during cooking, as there is no need to waste time cleaning. It just won't last long in the fridge. It is best to transfer the peeled slices to a glass container and pour vegetable oil. Alternatively, garlic can be put in pre-sterilized jars, closed with a lid and put in a cold place. But the shelf life of such a product is too short.
How to keep garlic in oil?
This method is good because, in addition to a well-preserved product, you can get fragrant garlic oil as a bonus. The peeled slices are tightly folded into a jar, periodically adding oil. Store in a cool place with a sealed lid.
Sometimes dry white or red wine, wine or table vinegar is used instead of oil.
In linen bags
These bags can be made from old clothes and scraps of unnecessary fabric. The main thing is to dip the finished products in a strong saline solution and dry thoroughly. The salt that has soaked the fabric does not allow pathogenic microbes to penetrate inside, so the garlic does not deteriorate.
In braids and buns
Only summer garlic can be stored in braids and bunches. This the old fashioned way storage was often used by our grandmothers and great-grandmothers. In old photographs and paintings, you can see real garlic garlands that hang on walls or beams.
For strength, use a rope or twine, making a loop at the end for easy hanging.
To weave a braid, it will take a lot of skill, but it takes up little space, which is very convenient in a city apartment. It is easier to tie the heads with the stems into bunches and just hang them in a dry room.
If you don’t want to mess around with bunches and braids, you can put the heads in old nylon stockings or tights and hang them in a secluded place.
An unusual method - waxing
This method is rarely used, but its effectiveness is quite high. Previously, it was constantly used in vegetable stores before sending raw materials to the market or to the store. Heads in paraffin can be stored for at least 6 months in their original form, as this substance does not allow moisture to evaporate. Prepared high-quality heads are dipped in liquid paraffin, left to solidify and transferred to a suitable container.
in flour
Alternatively, you can store the heads in glass jars with flour. Garlic is loosely folded into a container with roots down and poured abundantly. There is no need to close banks.
Sprinkling garlic with fresh sawdust
Storing vegetables and root crops in sawdust is a well-known method. It is best to use coniferous sawdust and wooden boxes. Keep the heads sprinkled with sawdust in a cold and dry room.
Shelf life
Properly storing garlic in winter is not difficult at all, but keep in mind that depending on the method, storage periods also differ:
- Garlic is stored for the longest time in paraffin and other free-flowing dry products. The same applies to linen bags if they lie in a dry room. Subject to all the rules, the product will retain its properties for six months.
- Next comes garlic in the refrigerator, oil and a jar. The maximum storage period is 3 months.
- The crushed garlic mass with salt is suitable for consumption for no more than 8 weeks.
It should be borne in mind that summer garlic is stored better, and winter garlic should be used first.
A large crop is best stored in several ways. This will protect against the loss of garlic in cases where suddenly some storage conditions are not met.
" Garlic
Garlic has long been an essential ingredient in many dishes and folk recipes. In order to have fragrant and fresh heads on hand all year round, you need to know how and where to properly store them at home in the winter.
There are several common ways to store this vegetable that will keep it fit for consumption until the next harvest.
As a rule, the following places are chosen for this:
- underground;
- balcony;
- fridge;
- dry places in the apartment.
It is more convenient for owners of private houses to choose a subfloor, since there may not always be enough space in the refrigerator. Having a dry place in an apartment or house is perfect for placing garlic braids and bunches or hanging a net. A glazed balcony is a great place to "winter" this vegetable in jars and boxes.
Storage in braids
The time-tested method it is a plaited braid of heads dried with a stalk. The finished braid is left in a dark and dry room. For this, a closet or pantry is suitable. Garlic braids take up very little space, but require skill and skill to weave the stems together well.
Storage in bundles
Dried heads with stems are tied into a bundle with a rope and hung in a dry room. The method is practically no different from the previous one, and the beams can also act as interior decoration.
Use of jars and boxes
Many people choose three-liter jars for overwintering vegetables without filling their heads with anything. This allows it not to dry out and germinate. Banks must be placed in the refrigerator or on the balcony.
To keep the garlic in the box, it is necessary to sprinkle its bottom with salt, then lay out some of the heads, sprinkle with salt again and lay out in this way layer by layer. This option allows the vegetable to remain fresh and juicy for a long time.
Waxing
Storage in bags
For this, bags made of natural materials. R It is recommended to periodically sort out the contents of the bag to remove damaged heads.
To reduce the risk of mold and bacteria, soak the garlic in a concentrated saline solution, let it dry, and then place it in a bag.
Storage in the refrigerator in a city apartment
To leave a vegetable for the winter in the refrigerator, it dry well, put into paper bags and put separately from other products.
To prevent spoilage of the product in the refrigerator, it is recommended to sprinkle the contents of the bags with salt or onion peel.
Freezing and canning
You can freeze as whole peeled cloves wrapped in foil or cling film, and finely chopped to reduce the cooking time when using them. This option is suitable for those who use the vegetable in cooking less often, since freezing changes the taste and structure of this product.
For preservation, you can use wine or vinegar. To do this, peeled cloves are placed in a jar and poured with dry wine or white vinegar. A tightly closed jar is placed in the refrigerator. The method allows the garlic not to deteriorate for up to four months.
How to properly prepare crops for storage?
Properly carried out preparation is a guarantee that the product will not deteriorate in winter period in a city apartment.
Preparation for wintering should begin with the harvesting stage. It is important to know that there are two types of garlic that determine the timing of its collection:
- Winter:
- collection time: end of July;
- determination of readiness: the leaves turn yellow, the scales become thinner, the skin of the inflorescences begins to crack;
- storage temperature: +1-3°;
- Spring:
- collection time: first half of August;
- determination of readiness: the leaves turn very yellow and begin to bend over and lie down on the ground;
- storage temperature: +16-20°.
Digging must be done carefully, since damaged heads deteriorate much faster than whole ones and are more susceptible to the development of bacteria. For this purpose, a pitchfork or a shovel is used.
Preparing garlic for storage - tying together After digging the garlic, dry it well. Do it better in the open sun. The stems must be cut off, except in cases where weaving braids or bundles is supposed.
After harvesting, you need to get rid of all:
- damaged heads;
- rotten or affected by bacteria;
- empty heads.
Unsuitable garlic can be dried and used as a condiment.
After carrying out all of the above manipulations, you can begin to send the vegetable for the winter.
Storage issues
The most important and practically the only problem that can occur during wintering is damage to the heads. It can happen for several reasons.
First of all, it is a fungal infection. This can be avoided by very careful sorting. Also, the product may deteriorate due to improper storage conditions.
The following signs allow you to determine the corruption:
- an unpleasant smell, reminiscent of overcooked garlic;
- the presence of rotten lobules or whole heads.
In order for garlic to remain usable in the winter season as long as possible, it is necessary to strictly observe the algorithm for preparing for wintering and the conditions of the method chosen for this purpose.
Preserving garlic for the winter at home is quite simple. The main thing is to follow all the preparation measures and choose the most suitable method for yourself. Having followed all the established recommendations, you will be able to delight yourself with a tasty and juicy vegetable until the harvest of a new crop.
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