garden news-how to braid garlic and how to store onions in freezer

GARDEN NEWS-HOW TO BRAID GARLIC AND HOW TO STORE ONIONS IN THE FREEZER

back in november we bought some italian red garlic bulbs to plant in the garden here
we chose those since they had done so well the last few years
garlic growing here in santa barbara can be hit and miss
i missed on 2 out of 5 years gardening here

the fog and moisture does a number on garlic
one year mine all rotted and were also covered with brown rust a fungal disease
whereas 
in texas when i grew my garlic i had no issues 


this year we planted our garlic in this bed in november
it gets a lot of all day sun
the garlic seemed to do well there
we had planted last year in the next bed over and it did well
it did well this year also

a couple of weeks ago we harvested these garlic and let them sit out in the sun to dry out

we dont donate them all at once but try to donate a few to each recipient of our donations each week so these garlic will last a few weeks

we needed a place to store them so we that is i told the other volunteers about how i use to braid my garlic and hang it from the rafters of our barn or garage or bbq pit area
using the garlic as we needed them
we would have enough for months and months of use

i suggested we just braid them and hang them from our covered food prep area
so
i showed them how i did it
well i just took them and in no particular way braided them using a lot of twine to hold them in place
the other volunteers reached out to this youtube video linked below to learn step by step how to do it
correctly


this easy to follow video on how to braid the garlic resulted in the nice looking braids in the picture above minus of course the one i did with my get it done method
i must say theirs looked more artistic then mine
mine had a more rustic look

these garlic will be clipped off as needed for our donations each week

i did go back and try to braid using this method
but
i used the onions below and it seemed to look ok


these texas sweet onions were planted right after thanksgiving from starts i obtained via mail from dixondale farms out of texas
this picture above was taken in mid january

the onions can be harvested any time for green onions but the idea is to let them grow into larger bulbs like in the picture below


these are these onions from my garden
i harvested them when the green stalks started to fall over
they were left there too dry 

in texas i would hang them as onion chimes using panty hose 
as i needed an onion i would cut it off the chime
they would last for months and months this way

here in santa barbara i had trouble getting mine to not rotten 
i guess its the cooler weather and fog
so
here what i do 
remove the stalks and clean them up 
chop them into quarters
throw them into a blender
it chops them up 

then i place them into a gallon freezer bag
about 5 onions go into a bag
from my garden i harvested about 50 sweet onion bulbs

as i need onions i will remove about a fourth of the bag for use in soups stews etc
these onions will last us until this time next year

along the way we ate a lot of fresh onions starting in january with fresh green onions

so
thats how to braid garlic
and 
how to freeze and use onions

we plan to braid the remaining onions in our community garden to hang beside our garlic until we get them all donated

then 
this fall we will start all over again

the organicgreen doctor