What to Do with Excess Garlic from the Garden
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Garlic is my favorite thing to grow in the garden, but what if your crop is too bountiful? Find out what to do with excess garlic from the garden. For more on how to use other excess produce from your garden, check this out.
We grow over 100 heads of garlic every year in our preschool garden. Why? I love it, I love sharing it, I love growing it. It’s easy, foolproof, pests don’t bother it much, and it’s easy for the kids to plant and harvest. It’s the perfect thing for our preschool garden.
Here’s how you can grow garlic in your garden.
For more amazing ideas to do with excess produce from the garden, click here.
- What to do with Excess Squash from the Garden
- What to do with Excess Onions
- 25 Ways to Use Excess Tomatoes from the Garden
How to Store Garlic
There are so many cool things you can use garlic for. So, if you grew too much and your neighbors are all crazy and don’t want any, you can make it into a ton of yummy things.
Garlic cloves have a great shelf life and can last for a long time in a dark place. If you store them in direct sunlight, they will start to sprout. The best way to store garlic is to braid the whole heads and hang them in a cool, dry place, or to place a few in a small paper sack. mesh bag, pantyhose, or wire basket and store them like that.
But remember to store your garlic harvest in whole garlic heads of unseparated, unpeeled garlic that still has its papery skin. And that it depends on the types of garlic you have if they are good for long-term storage or short term. Also, remember to never try to store them (or any fresh foods) in a plastic bag from the grocery store. Fruits and vegetables are alive and they need to breathe. Cutting off the air circulation will just make them spoil right away.
If you have a root cellar, that’s a great place to store lots of garlic, but you don’t have to have one to find success with excess garlic. But if you have too much garlic to use, you can make tons of preserved garlic gifts and give them to a lot of people (or sell them). You can also use the food processor to make garlic paste and have your extra garlic and frozen garlic cubes that are ready to pop right into a recipe or store it in a small jar in the fridge for a few days. You can also add a bit of vinegar and make it last a few weeks.
If you want to read the full story of how we got started growing our own food at Little Sprouts and get all the basics to start yourself, check this out. The Journey of the Little Sprouts: A Guide for Growing a Better Tomorrow.
How to use Excess Garlic
Roasted garlic is A-Mazing! It tastes good on anything. I love to roast a bunch of it in olive oil like in this recipe for roasted garlic and smear it on crostini. It freezes great, so I’ll pop it out of the skins and put it in a small container. Then I can scrape out a spoonful to make my recipes taste like they’ve been cooked all day. It’s a little spoonful of love.
If you grow hard neck garlic, you’ll have to remove the “scapes” when they shoot up. Check out great ways to use the garlic scapes here.
If you want to save excess garlic for later, it’s easy to store it as is. But if you want to process it all like the roasted garlic, so you can toss it into a recipe in a snap, you can make garlic salt, garlic powder, or minced garlic.
If you don’t want to store it at room temperature you can store it in the fridge for a week or so packed in olive oil. Peel it and fill a jar with it. Then fill the jar with oil to cover. You can also peel it and fill and jar and then fill the jar with vinegar. It will keep for several months this way. The vinegar mellows out the garlic making it perfect for salads and other raw preparations.
You can roast your excess garlic with the method linked above and store it in the freezer in ice cube trays. Once it’s frozen, you can pop out the squares and put them in an airtight container and they’ll keep for months.
You can also save your homegrown garlic and plant it the following season. It goes in during the fall and out early summer.
Garlic salt vs garlic powder
Garlic salt obviously is garlic powder and salt mixed together. It’s great to have the salt to add to recipes because you don’t have to add two ingredients. I love making garlic powder in my dehydrator and minced garlic as well. You can also learn more about how to preserve food with dehydration here.
I like to have it for things that won’t cook long or won’t cook. You can put it on top of cream cheese on toast, pizza, baked potatoes, whatever you like a little garlic flavor on but don’t want to use fresh. Think of everything bagel seasoning or something like that with a burst of flavor to finish off the top.
Garlic powder vs garlic
Using garlic powder instead of fresh garlic will give you a different taste. Fresh garlic is more pungent than dried. I like both for different reasons. And I like to make dried minced garlic and garlic powder for my spice mixes. It’s great in:
Garlic dip
I LOVE making dip by just taking an 8 oz tub of sour cream and mixing in 2-3 tablespoons of ranch mix like is linked above. It’s great like that or with an additional few shakes of garlic powder. Just mix and it’s ready. Takes about 2 seconds.
Benefits of Eating Garlic
Garlic has a whole lot of wonderful health benefits. You can even take it in capsule form. I guess you could make your own with your homemade garlic powder. It’s good for hearts, joints, brains, and digestion. It helps with colds, flu, muscle aches and has vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants as well. There are so many great ways to use it, you’ll be able to enjoy the “medicine” as you take it.
I prefer to crush garlic when using it. You can mince it with a knife, but it only takes two seconds to smash it with your garlic press and you don’t have to peel it all the way to do it. I’m not a big fan of peeling, especially when the garlic is fresh and the skins are super tight.
The excess garlic can be used in soups, sauces, casseroles, and so much more. Garlic mashed potatoes are mmmmm. It’s used in Italian food to be sure, but also in Indian, Korean, Middle Eastern food as well.
Did you know excess garlic can even be used in the garden? You can mix it up with onion and cayenne in some water and spray it on to repel bugs that might be eating your plants. There’s nothing garlic can’t do. We’ll just call it super garlic!
You can fry it in a bit of oil and eat it fried for a special treat. This is my second favorite preparation after roasting. Nothing like a slightly crunchy little garlic chip to make my day.
Recipes with garlic
There are so many wonderful dishes that can be made with fresh excess garlic. Let one of these ideas inspire you.
This garlic parmesan roasted broccoli will make you fall head over heels for broccoli. You can roast any vegetable with this recipe.
One of the great strengths of potatoes is how they can absorb flavors. Add some lemon juice, minced garlic, broth, salt, pepper, and oregano. Then let those potatoes soak up all of the seasonings like a sponge.
This Aigo Bouido, or garlic soup, is a Julia Child classic. While it is so simple, it is restorative and so comforting.
Classic creamy alfredo sauce is the decadent comfort food of your dreams. Made with real butter, cream, and parmesan cheese, this really is the BEST alfredo sauce recipe, so be sure to save it for later!
