Until that day that we can source all our food straight from our garden, we are huge Costco addicts. Buying in bulk is more economical, and we are blessed in our region to have many organic and non-gmo options for produce!
The problem with buying in bulk is that often the food goes bad before you have a chance to use it all! This has been the case with buying the whole bulbs of garlic. We do our best to eat what we have and not waste anything, so when I needed more garlic this week, I decided to peel and ferment half the bag of garlic rather than wait until they’re mushy and unusable.
It’s probably a lot more work to peel each clove, and I’m aware that Costco also sells pre-peeled garlic in a huge bag as well, but I had the perfect helper for the job which made it a joy. Processing our own food causes us to slow down, enjoy the often fleeting moments, and be grateful for what we have. It also made for a great homeschooling opportunity (ask Eila and she will tell you that two garlic cloves plus three garlic cloves make five garlic cloves)!
I opted to process about half the bag, which perfectly filled a narrow mouth pint jar. Once it was filled, I added a 2% brine mixture (10g of salt dissolved in 2c of water) and poured it into the jar.
Having learned my lesson with my fermented carrots, I had Ben help me pour the remaining few tablespoons of brine into a ziplock bag and stuff it into the top of the jar to hold the floating cloves beneath the surface of the brine.
And voila! These garlic cloves can ferment in the brine probably indefinitely, as even if they become mushy, they will be perfect in soups or marinades and such. And once our garden is full of way too much garlic, I’m sure I’ll be processing garlic this way at that point as well!
