THERE ARE NO VAMPIRES IN MY HOUSE!

This week has been about finishing a project started in October of last year when I planted garlic for the first time.

I harvested it in May. Considering the small size of most of the bulbs, that may have been early. I was judging by the way the plants looked above ground though and everything I read said garlic is ready to harvest when the leaves turn brown. I left the plants in an extra two weeks beyond that. I was concerned about leaving them in any longer because of the articles cautioning that leaving them in the ground too long could result in rot.

The garlic cured on wire shelves from the middle of May to the end of August.

By the time I was ready to process it this week I had shifted from my original thought to can it and just decided to dehydrate it and turn it into garlic powder.

First, I peeled off the outer layers and separated the cloves on each bulb. This was hard on my fingers and created quite a bit of debris but only took about an hour.

I ended up with a small bowl of ready-to-peel garlic cloves.

When family came over to visit this weekend, I conscripted them into peeling the cloves. Our hands were rather fragrant when we finished, and we teased each other that there would be no vampires in our beds tonight.

After they left, I smashed and chopped the peeled cloves and put them on lined dehydrator trays.

Since there were only two trays of garlic, I put an empty tray on the bottom, a garlic tray, an empty tray, a garlic tray, and finally an empty tray on the top. I wanted to be sure there was plenty of air flow.

Remember the mention about fragrant hands? That was nothing on how strong the garlic smell was as I ran the dehydrator! It wasn’t unpleasant but the aroma of garlic was very strong and permeated the whole house. So, I can guarantee that if there was such a thing as vampires, they were not at my house last night!

This afternoon, after the garlic was fully dry, I ran it through the blender and vacuum-packed the powder in a 1/2-pint jar. I got about 1/3 cup of homemade garlic powder out of that little bit of garlic.

Not only is it useful as a seasoning, but garlic is also good for you. Garlic is a good source of manganese, vitamin B6, vitamin C, selenium, fiber and it contains trace amount of various other nutrients. In addition to boosting your immune system, it may help prevent viruses from entering or from replicating within your cells. The active compounds in garlic can reduce blood pressure and cholesterol levels. While I don’t season to that level of usefulness, garlic is certainly a worthy plant.