The first of our garlic harvest has been gathered (there's still quite a bit more out there just waiting!). This was our first try at planting garlic and it seems to have been a success. It's so exciting after putting all those cloves into the ground WAY BACK last fall and watching the little green shoots appear a few weeks later... then get bigger and bigger, all the time wondering if there's REALLY gonna be garlic bulbs under there.
When the leaves began to yellow, then turn brown in May (I thought we had until June or July!) we began the harvest, but after getting up the brownest-leaved ones first, we realized we probably have a few more weeks before we need to get the rest. We have garlic bulbs of every size... from one that's as big as a tennis ball, to LOTS that are much much smaller, to a few that are not much bigger than the end of my thumb. But they're all garlic and so aromatic.
The garden book says to lay the bulbs with the leaves still attached in full sun for a couple of weeks to cure... but it's been raining... I mean REALLY raining every day, it's been difficult to find full sun lately and no matter where I've put them, the water seems to puddle up underneath and I feared all our hard work would be in vain if those bulbs of yummy garlic-ness rotted in the rain... so after a week of trying to cure them... I decided to go ahead and dehydrate them and make some garlic powder.
Here's what I did...
I separated all the cloves, then peeled the papery outer layer off... and put them in the dehydrator... at first I set the temperature to 90 degrees (the temp recommended for herbs) but after 24 hours nothing seemed to be happening in there, so I upped the temp to 130 degrees (recommended for fruits and veggies)... it still took a couple of days (did I mention we've been getting torrential rains and thunderstorms for the past few weeks? and the humidity has been like 100 percent every day. Mind you, I'm not complaining, the garden has LOVED this rain and the lower than average June temperatures here in the S.C. Midlands... if you think of 70-80 degrees as low temps... we're usually up in the 90s or even 100 by this time of year)
Anyway, after a couple days, the garlic was completely dry and ready for the next step. I think next time I will slice up some of the larger cloves (I had left them whole) so there is a more uniform size, some of those bigger pieces took much longer to dry out than the others. Live and learn!
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| With small items like garlic cloves, I make parchment circles to line the dehydrator trays so they don't fall through the cracks. If I had an Excalibur dehydrator, I wouldn't have this problem... but Alas! I don't... One day... |
Next, I popped those crunchy bits of garlic goodness into the blender... a few at a time and gave them a whir...
... and continued blending until I had powder...
*Warning... if you lift the lid of the blender too soon after it stops, you will get a lovely cloud of garlic puffing out the top... I learned my lesson (garlic is so good for you, wonder if there are benefits to inhaling a garlic cloud? Hmmm???) It's a good idea to let it settle for a few minutes with the lid on, just sayin'!
If I had an extra shaker jar, I would have poured my garlic powder into one of those (I like to save shakers after they're emptied, or they sell nice glass empty ones at Fresh Market for next to nothing)
I DO have canning jars of every size... so my garlic powder went into one... a pint jar... I will add more to the jar later when I harvest the remainder of my garlic...
... and that's it! Easy Peasy!
, lotion, a 
and other pampering products (I'm pretty sure his sweet little wife picked it out, but nevertheless, I love the gift and the givers).
have anything to do with canning Vidalia onion relish? I'm glad you asked...
s... turned out pretty good I must say)
...
and a 
attachment to chop all those onions! And even with the mechanical assistance, the onion odor filled our house and brought tears to my eyes in the kitchen, and to my sweet husband's eyes in the living room... I was beginning to get concerned about our two parakeets! Can a parakeet be killed by noxious onion fumes? DH solved the worst of the problem by opening the front and the back doors to allow air flow and we were spared watery eyes.
, not table salt, it's more pure, doesn't contain additives, like iodine and aluminum that might cause discoloration or sediment in the final product)
(a natural anti-inflammatory, it is also said to be good for so many things in the body, from preventing cancer to aiding memory, to regulating blood pressure, plus it adds a beautiful, natural yellow color and delicious flavor to the relish)
(I added more like 2 Tablespoons, again, this is my relish, I wanted more pickly-ness!)
and dropped the sachet into the stockpot.
and discarded the liquid and added the onion mixture to the stockpot, mixing all the ingredients well. I brought it back to a boil, then simmered again for another 30 minutes, stirring often. I removed and discarded the spice bag.
that had previously been washed, sterilized and kept hot until ready to use. I left about a half inch of headspace.
and set them on the counter on a folded dish towel to cool...
