- 2 days ago
Garlic does not have to dry out, sprout, or end up in the bin after a few weeks. With the right storage, it can stay firm, fragrant, and usable for months, even close to a year, using simple old household tricks.
This practical food storage guide explains why garlic spoils from moisture and warmth, then walks through the old braided method for cured heads and five clever ways to keep loose garlic. You’ll hear how flour can drink up damp, how bay leaves help ward off mold and pantry bugs, how a small bag of baking soda and dry tea can keep garlic driest of all, and why garlic in oil must be refrigerated and used quickly for safety. It also covers garlic in vinegar, a long-keeping pickle-style method, plus a reminder to store garlic away from potatoes and onions.
Created for viewers looking for garlic storage tips, food preservation ideas, kitchen tricks, and long-term pantry storage. Ideal for anyone wanting to reduce food waste, keep garlic fresh longer, and learn simple homestead-style preserving methods for everyday cooking.
This practical food storage guide explains why garlic spoils from moisture and warmth, then walks through the old braided method for cured heads and five clever ways to keep loose garlic. You’ll hear how flour can drink up damp, how bay leaves help ward off mold and pantry bugs, how a small bag of baking soda and dry tea can keep garlic driest of all, and why garlic in oil must be refrigerated and used quickly for safety. It also covers garlic in vinegar, a long-keeping pickle-style method, plus a reminder to store garlic away from potatoes and onions.
Created for viewers looking for garlic storage tips, food preservation ideas, kitchen tricks, and long-term pantry storage. Ideal for anyone wanting to reduce food waste, keep garlic fresh longer, and learn simple homestead-style preserving methods for everyday cooking.
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00:00You buy a good lot of garlic, meaning to use it slowly through the season.
00:04And within a few weeks it has dried out hard and papery, or worse, gone soft and sprouted
00:10a green shoot from every clove, and lost its good sharp aroma, and half of it is fit only
00:16for the bin.
00:17It happens to near everyone, and folk think it is just the nature of garlic.
00:21But it is not.
00:23It is only that the garlic was stored wrong.
00:25And stored right, garlic keeps firm and fragrant and sprout free for months and months, some
00:32ways of it near the year round.
00:34So today I am going to show you how to keep your garlic all year without it drying, sprouting,
00:40or molding.
00:41The old braided way first, and then five clever tricks for loose garlic, and, just as important,
00:48the one truth about why garlic spoils that makes every one of them make sense.
00:53Let me show you.
00:54Here is the thing to understand first, for it is the single reason garlic goes bad, and
01:00the key to every method I am about to give you.
01:03Garlic dries out, sprouts, and molds because of just two things, moisture and warmth.
01:10Think on it.
01:11A clove sprouts a green shoot only when it has enough damp and warmth to think it is time
01:17to grow, as it would in the spring ground.
01:19Deny it the moisture, and it cannot sprout, for it has nothing to grow with.
01:25And mold, likewise, needs damp to take hold.
01:28Keep the garlic dry, and mold cannot form.
01:32And the drying out is the other face of it, the garlic losing its own moisture to air too
01:37warm and moving.
01:38So the whole secret of keeping garlic is this, keep it cool, and above all, keep it dry.
01:45Every trick I give you is just a different way of holding the garlic at that right dry
01:50coolness.
01:52Keep it cool and dry.
01:53That is the whole of it.
01:55Now, let me give you the ways.
01:57Quick word before we go further.
01:59My name is Esther Yoder, and the old household ways handed down to me, the kind I am sharing
02:05today, and a great many more besides, are far more than I could ever fit into one video.
02:11I have gathered the whole of them into a book, and you will find it at EliasYoder.com.
02:16If today's tips serve you, that is where the rest of what my mother and grandmother taught
02:21me lives, all in the one place.
02:24Now, to the garlic.
02:26My grandmother had a saying that fits this exactly, that you store a thing the way it
02:31likes to be kept, and it will keep for you.
02:33She meant that every food has its own nature and its own right way of keeping, and the wise
02:39woman learns what each one wants, cool or dry or dark or airy, and gives it that, rather
02:45than fighting its nature, and so her stores never spoil.
02:49And garlic, which wants only to be kept cool and dry, is the very picture of it.
02:55So here is her kind of keeping, the old way and the clever ones.
03:00First and simplest, the old way, which I have shown you before and which wants no jar nor
03:05trick at all, the braid.
03:07When garlic is cured, dried down after harvest, you plate the whole heads together by their
03:13long, dry tops into a braid, and hang the braid in a cool, dry, airy place.
03:19And there it keeps for many months, a head pulled off as you need it, the good air moving
03:24around it, keeping it dry and sound.
03:27That is the first and best keeping for whole, cured heads, and costs nothing.
03:32But the braid is for whole heads with their tops on.
03:35Once you have broken the garlic loose, or bought it loose, you want the clever tricks.
03:40And here they are, five of them.
03:42The first trick, for loose, whole heads, is to keep them in flour.
03:47Take a dry glass jar or a container, and pour a good layer of plain flour in the bottom,
03:52a couple of inches thick.
03:53Then fill the jar with your garlic heads, and you may sprinkle a light dusting of flour
03:58over the top as well, though it need not cover them.
04:01And here is a fine addition.
04:03Drop a few grains of salt in, to help draw the damp.
04:06Then close the lid tight, and store it cool, dry, and out of the sun.
04:11Now, why does the flour keep the garlic?
04:14Because flour is thirsty.
04:16It draws the moisture out of the air in the jar, and the little damp the garlic itself gives
04:22off, and pulls it into the flour, instead of leaving it about the garlic.
04:27So the garlic stays dry, and cannot mold, nor sprout.
04:31The flour drinks the damp, that would spoil the garlic.
04:36Kept so, garlic stays dry, and fragrant, a good two or three months.
04:42Garlic in flour.
04:44The flour drinks the damp.
04:47The second trick, a handsome one, is to keep garlic layered with bay leaves.
04:52Take firm, whole, uncracked heads, and in a glass jar, lay down a layer of garlic.
05:00Then a layer of dried bay leaves.
05:03Then more garlic, then more bay, up the jar.
05:07Why the bay?
05:08Because the bay leaf holds natural oils that fight bacteria and mold, and repel the little
05:15insects.
05:16So, laid among the garlic, it wards off the spoilage, and the bugs, and lends a mild, pleasant
05:23scent.
05:24A few whole black peppercorns add to the mold fighting.
05:28Close it tight, and keep it dry.
05:31And the garlic keeps three or four months, without molding or sprouting.
05:36And it is a lovely thing on the shelf, besides.
05:39And mark this, tying to what I told you before.
05:42A bay leaf, tucked in with your stored things, wards off the mold and pantry bugs.
05:49A good old trick for your flour and grains, too.
05:54Garlic in bay leaves.
05:55The bay wards off the mold and the bugs.
05:59The third trick is the little drying bag of baking soda and dry tea.
06:05And this keeps garlic the longest of the dry ways, near half a year.
06:09Take a scrap of thin cloth or gauze, sprinkle onto it a little baking soda and a little dry,
06:17loose tea.
06:18Then gather it up and tie it into a small bag.
06:22Tuck that bag right into the bag with your garlic, squeeze the air out, tie it shut, and
06:29hang it in a cool, dry place.
06:31Open it to take a head and tie it back.
06:35Why these two?
06:37Both the baking soda and the dry tea are thirsty things that drink up any moisture, keeping
06:44the garlic dry.
06:45And the tea holds certain natural compounds that help keep it from sprouting the sides.
06:51And remember our one truth.
06:54Garlic sprouts only when it has the moisture and warmth to grow.
06:58So kept bone dry, it simply cannot sprout, having nothing to grow with.
07:04The little bag drinks the damp and the tea stays the sprout.
07:09And the garlic keeps firm for about half a year.
07:12The soda and tea bag, the driest keeping of all.
07:17Now those three are for keeping your garlic whole and dry.
07:21The last two are different.
07:23They are for putting garlic up prepared and ready to cook.
07:27And here the keeping is by oil and by acid rather than by dryness.
07:32The fourth trick is garlic in oil.
07:35You peel your cloves, leaving them whole for a milder flavor or crushing them lightly for
07:41a stronger one.
07:42Put them in a clean glass jar and pour in oil until the garlic is completely covered.
07:48And close it tight.
07:49And then you have peeled garlic ready to drop into your cooking.
07:53And the oil itself, taken on the garlic's flavor, is grand for your frying and stirring.
07:59So you get two good things from the one jar.
08:02But hear me now, for this one carries a real danger, and I must be plain about it.
08:08For it is a matter of safety, not fussiness.
08:12Garlic put up in oil must be kept cold, in the refrigerator for those who have one,
08:18or a truly cold place, and used up quickly, within two or three weeks,
08:23and never ever left sitting out at room temperature.
08:27Why so firm?
08:28Because garlic is a thing of the soil, and shut away from air under oil at room warmth,
08:34it can grow a certain poison, a botulism, that you cannot see, nor smell, nor taste,
08:41and that can make a body gravely, dangerously ill.
08:45So this is the one keeping method that is not for the shelf.
08:49Garlic in oil goes cold and is used up soon, never left out warm.
08:53Keep that firmly, and it is a fine convenience.
08:57Forget it, and it is a real danger.
09:01Garlic in oil, kept cold and used quick, never left warm.
09:05And the fifth trick is garlic soaked in vinegar.
09:09An old and healthful way to put garlic up that keeps a long while, and makes a tasty thing besides.
09:15Separate your cloves, throwing out any damaged, or moldy, or dried ones.
09:20And here is a fine tip for the tedious peeling.
09:24Soak the cloves in a bowl of water about an hour first, and the skins slip off ever so much
09:30easier.
09:31Then rinse and peel, splitting the big cloves so they take the vinegar quicker.
09:37Put your peeled garlic in a clean glass jar.
09:40Add a teaspoon of salt and a little rock sugar for a gentle sweetness.
09:44And pour in vinegar with a little cooled, boiled water until the garlic is fully covered.
09:50A few slices of chili if you like heat.
09:53Close it tight, shake to dissolve the salt and sugar, and set it in a cool, dry place out of
09:59the sun.
10:00In seven to ten days it is ready, and the longer it sits, the richer and mellower it grows.
10:07And kept in its vinegar, it keeps near the year round, for the acid is what preserves it,
10:12the same acid that keeps all your pickles.
10:16Now, an honest word.
10:17You will hear garlic called a natural antibiotic that wards off colds and builds resistance,
10:23and folk have prized it so for a very long time.
10:27And there may be some good in it, but take it as the valued old folk food it is,
10:32a wholesome thing well worth eating, not a sure medicine against sickness.
10:37Garlic and vinegar, preserved by the acid, and a wholesome old pickle.
10:42And one plain thing to remember through all of these, which I have told you before.
10:47Keep your garlic apart from your potatoes and your onions in the storing,
10:51for they give off a breath that makes each other spoil and sprout the faster,
10:55so each keeps best in its own place.
10:58Garlic apart from the potatoes and onions.
11:00Now think a moment about why we came to lose half our garlic to drying and sprouting every time,
11:06buying it a little at a time and watching it spoil,
11:08when a jar of flour or a few bay leaves or a splash of vinegar keeps it firm and fragrant
11:14for months.
11:15It is worse than a plot, for no one had to arrange it.
11:19There is a steady profit in your buying garlic again and again as your last lot withers,
11:24and none at all in teaching folk that garlic spoils only from damp and warmth,
11:29and denied those with a bit of flour or soda or a braid it keeps near the year.
11:34So the plain old knowing of how to keep a garlic head sound just stopped being handed down,
11:40because no one profits by your keeping your garlic a year from one buying.
11:44My grandmother braided her garlic and hung it and had good firm heads the winter through,
11:49and somewhere between her day and ours we were taught to buy the little net bag and watch it sprout.
11:55The mending of it is to keep garlic cool and dry, its nature.
11:59You braid and hang your whole cured heads in the cool dry air.
12:02For loose heads, you keep them in a jar over a layer of flour that drinks the damp,
12:07or layered with bay leaves that ward off the mold and bugs,
12:11or with a little bag of baking soda and dry tea that keeps them driest of all, near half a
12:16year.
12:17And for garlic ready to cook, you put it up in oil, kept cold and used quick and never left
12:22warm,
12:23or in vinegar, preserved by the acid near the year round.
12:27And you keep it all apart from your potatoes and onions.
12:30And your garlic stays firm and fragrant and sprout free all the year,
12:34for pennies, from one good buying.
12:37That is how it comes home, one kept head, one dry jar at a time,
12:42the keeping of your own kitchen back in your own hands.
12:44So here is what I would ask of you.
12:47This week, next time you have more garlic than you will use straight off,
12:51do not leave it in the net bag to wither.
12:53Pick one of these ways, the flour jar is the easiest, and put it up properly,
12:58and come back and tell me in the comments how long your garlic kept firm and sweet,
13:03for I do love to hear of a food saved from the bin.
13:06And tell me too, while you are there, your county and the age of your house,
13:10for the old houses have the cool dry pantries and cellars made for just this keeping.
13:15And I learn from every one of you how the storing goes where you live.
13:19And if your own mother or grandmother had a way of keeping garlic or another kitchen thing that I have
13:25not named here,
13:26tell me that most of all.
13:28For that is how this goes.
13:30We share what we were given.
13:32I read every comment and I learn from you the way the old women learn from one another across the
13:39fence line,
13:40one kitchen and one season at a time.
13:44Next time I will show you the old ways of keeping the rest of your kitchen aromatics sound through the
13:50year,
13:51the onions and the ginger and the fresh herbs, each with its own right way of keeping cool or dry
13:59or put up,
14:00so that between the garlic and these your whole flavor shelf stays fresh and ready for pennies and never withers
14:09in the bag.
14:10There is a right and an old way to keep a kitchen's garlic and aromatics that runs on knowing what
14:17each likes and giving it that,
14:20rather than buying them small and watching them spoil.
14:23But this week you start with the garlic.
14:26You braid your whole heads or put your loose ones up in flour or bay or the soda and tea
14:34bag.
14:34You keep your cooking garlic in cold oil or in vinegar and you keep it all cool and dry and
14:42apart from the potatoes and onions.
14:45And you will understand, as my grandmother did, that you store a thing the way it likes to be kept
14:51and it will keep for you.
14:53That garlic dries and sprouts and molds for one reason only, moisture and warmth.
15:01And that denied the damp with a bit of flour or soda or a braid in the cool dry air.
15:09It keeps firm and fragrant near the year round.
15:13The household kept the plain old way is the one that remembers to give each food its own right keeping.
15:20And so has firm sweet garlic on the shelf the winter through.
15:25And that is a thing we are only just starting to remember.
15:29So it's got tricky with heart.
15:29It comes along with the heart of the heart of the hamperform.
15:29The heart of the heart of the heart as Jared Gra我的 Boy'sboro functional Habermas