How to Dry Garlic

I recently found myself with a fairly large amount of fresh garlic, and realized that it wouldn't last long enough for me to use all of it. I quite often buy garlic, dried, from the grocery store but I've never dealt with fresh garlic. And let me tell you, the smell alone of fresh garlic is simply sublime. But the taste... ooh baby~

So I've got a whole bunch of delicious local, organic garlic and I don't want it to go bad. The logical solution? Dry it.

Here's how you can dry your own fresh garlic (from your own garden or the farmers market) yourself:

Take a bunch of fresh garlic. Tye it up, and hang it in a cool, dry place. Let dry there for a couple weeks (elephant garlic needs four weeks or more). When dry, store it in a cool, dry place. I keep mine in a basket on the counter. It'll keep like that for months.

I think this is one of my favorite parts of gardening: preserving the harvest. It remind me of Under the Tuscan Sun...

Enjoy!