Making your own garlic powder
14.3 years ago cheap, dehydrator, garlic bulbs
I like to use garlic powder for making my own BBQ rubs and in cooking where I am too lazy to cut up some fresh garlic. Whenever I go to buy garlic powder at the grocery store I normally end up convincing myself to get 11 ounces of garlic salt at $3.99 versus the $7.49 for a 9 ounce container of garlic powder. Though this not what I really wanted, the cheapness in me always wins. Given I picked up a fancy food dehydrator recently, this year I have opted to make my own.
When creating my garlic braid I found many imperfect bulbs as well as some small bulbs which I set aside to be the victims into making garlic powder.
Step #1: Peel the and clean the cloves
The title pretty much sums it up but you need to get the cloves and peel off the outer layer of all the cloves. I normally following this up with a quick rinse to help get rid of the various loose pieces and make them a little less sticky (and smelly)
Step #2 Slice the garlic
The size is not that important, though the general idea is all of the slices should be about the same general size. This way they all should complete drying at the same time. Obviously the smaller you slice the quicker they will dry which may not be a good thing which I will explain later.
Step #3 Dry the garlic
Place the garlic in your food dehydrator with no pieces touching at 125-130F (or as close as yours can get) and if you sliced thin they could be ready in about 12 hours or if they were huge hunks like mine more like 3-4 days. The easy way to tell if they are done is by picking the largest clove chunk you can find and break it in half with your fingers. If it brittle and breaks cleanly they are ready, if it is soft and bends some check again in about 8-12 hours.
Step #4 Grind the garlic
Here is where you have a couple options, you can grind all of the cloves using a spice/coffee grinder and store in an airtight container or simply store the chunks in an airtight container and grind into powder as needed.
If you smell the chunks you may be surprised that there is not a strong garlic smell, that is because the outside has become oxidized. Though if you break one in half and take a smell or pop it in your mouth (if you are daring) you will see there is plenty of flavor inside. If you grind the garlic chunks they will start to oxidize reducing their effectiveness and given the new much larger surface area of the small particles it will not take long for your garlic to lose the great aroma it previous had.
You can preserve this potency longer by keeping the garlic as chunks and grinding it into powder right before using. Though bringing out and cleaning a spice grinder each time you cook with garlic can be a pain, so I would recommend grinding as much as you expect to use for a couple months and save the garlic chunks in an air tight contain and grind when needed so you always have fresh garlic powder ready to use.
As with any spices once opened they are good for about 6 months ground or 12 month whole when stored in an airtight container and twice those numbers if vacuum packed. So the garlic chunks are useable for one year with about half that for ground variety. You can also store garlic powder or garlic chunks in an airtight container in your freezer to gain a few extra months.
Tags: garlic
Earth Day in the garden
14.6 years ago cilantro, cold season crops, garlic bulbs, onions, peppers, tomato
I decided to take the day off to catch up on some things at home and as I ended up outside of course I went right to the garden.
We have seen a few warm days here in the Northwest and in my area we haven’t dipped under 40 degrees at night so seemed like a good time to plant a few of my tomatoes spending their time this winter in the grow box.
Above are a New Yorker and Persey both of which are new for me this year. They have been growing great even with my neglect during their youth. I also have some Green Zebras, Husky Cherry, Sweetie Cherry, and Yellow Cherry. I did attempt Red Brandywine but the seeds I got appear to be duds.
Given it is always good to have a Plan B so I have twins of these tomato plants still in puts which I can bring if a cold snap comes and kills off the plants I ambitiously planted in the ground.
Elsewhere in the garden I have some herbs: Parsley and Oregano, with Basil being an unfortunately casualty which I will plan on buying from the store and try again next year.
Next I checked out my larger garden bed to see my peas, cilantro, onions, carrots, lettuce, strawberries and garlic
Lastly I checked out the peppers in the grow box which they will stay until we have some warmer nights (at least 50 degrees) otherwise can cause significant stunting of growth. So until then they will remain happy in the grow box and given they are still pretty small, still plenty of room to grow…
Tags: cheap, cilantro, garden seeds, garlic bulbs, growbox, herb garden, outdoor plants, pepper plants, strawberry plants, tomato plants, vegetables
Attack of the garlic
14.7 years ago garlic bulbs, spinach
I either forgot to harvest a couple bulbs of garlic, or the mild winter we had in the Northwest may have allowed the garlic I planted last fall to slowly develop some bulbs. Thinking the first option is more likely, but did present me with a problem of some very tightly grouped garlic.
Fortunately the solution to this problem was very simple. I pulled up the garlic bunches and gently separated the individual garlic plants. Finally I carefully replanted at much better spacing and followed up with a little watering. The unfortunate side effect is now I have 75% of my cold weather plot growing garlic. On the positively side with proper preparation garlic stores well and I can definitely feel less guilty harvesting some of my garlic before they start developing bulbs.
Also provided that garlic does not require a lot of root space I should be able to plant some random veggies between them.
Tags: cheap, garlic bulbs, led, outdoor plants, vegetables
Garden Salsa recipe
15.3 years ago cilantro, garlic bulbs, harvest, onions, recipe, tomato
Big moment this week, I was able to make salsa entirely from ingredients. I normally don’t use cherry/grape tomatoes for salsa but my Early Girls are not that early this year and have not quite turned red.
CVG Garden Salsa Recipe
- 2-3 tomatoes (or 12-15 cherry/grape tomatoes)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 small onion
- green onion
- 5 sprigs of cilantro
- tablespoon vinegar
- 1 jalapeno pepper (seeded)
- sugar
Directions: Coarsely chop tomatoes (removing seeds, though if I few sneak in it is not a big deal), onion, and green onions and add to bowl. Finely chop garlic, cilantro, and seeded jalapeno pepper and add to mixture. Add vinegar to bowl and mix thoroughly. Let sit for 10 minutes and add sugar until salsa does not have a spicy aftertaste (normally 1-2 teaspoons) If you like the spice skip the sugar and include seeds from the jalapeno.
Tags: cilantro, garden seeds, garlic bulbs, pepper plants, salsa garden, tomato plants
Doing recon at the local farmers market
15.3 years ago corn, farmers market, garden planning, garlic bulbs
Your mission, should you decide to accept it is to infiltrate a local farmers market to gain intelligence to help aid your personal garden.
Sure, the farmers market is a great place to find some fresh food you can’t or didn’t have time/space to grow in your garden. It is also a great place to get seeds/starts for your garden. It is also a great resource to figure out how various fruits/vegetables grow in your area.
Even if you are growing everything you want/need in your own garden a quick stop at your farmers market can help you check out your competition and see for example in my case, “hey their garlic grew just as bad as mine this year.”
This is also a good time to try out new fruits and vegetables you are thinking of growing next year. There is nothing worse than growing a bed full of arugula and figure out at that point you hate the stuff. If you are lucky enough you might even get a meal and some seeds to plant with next year depending on you seed saving ability.
Now as always you don’t want to blow your cover while doing surveillance, so make sure you have a good cover store. In my case I used a few people known as “my wife and daughters” to appear less conspicuous. You can even use techniques of taking a picture of your “daughter” to get some recon picture of their products for further analysis.
In the end it looks like my little spy helpers had a good time and we even contributed a little to the local farmers economy and got the secret ingredient to CVG Black Bean and Corn Salsa Recipe (ok, it was corn).
This post will self destruct in 10 seconds (sorry had to say it)
Tags: cheap, garden seeds, garlic bulbs, outdoor plants, salsa garden, vegetables
Volunteer potatoes
15.4 years ago garlic bulbs, onions, potatoes
Well I wasn’t planning on growing potatoes this year but looks like I have a couple of volunteers from last year. This could turn out to be a fortunately accident since they are currently growing under my onions and garlic. If they happen to stay low enough might actually get two decent crops in the same square footage.
Any predictions?
Tags: garlic bulbs
