Since wild garlic only lasts a few days fresh in the refrigerator and it cannot be harvested all year round, the question arises as to suitable methods of preservation and storage. Drying the leaves is possible in principle, but sometimes it does not produce the best results.

Harvest and prepare wild garlic correctly

It makes a difference whether you bought the wild garlic used in your kitchen in a pot, harvested it from a fenced garden or collected it in the forest. With wild garlic collected in the wild, there is a certain (albeit small) risk of contamination with the pathogens of the so-called fox tapeworm. You should therefore wash the wild garlic leaves thoroughly before using them again, especially if they are to be used in uncooked dishes. Washing the wild garlic may seem counterproductive when drying or freezing, but you can pat the pressure-sensitive leaves dry with a soft cloth before processing. Also, the drying result will not improve if you harvest almost wilted looking leaves after heat waves and droughts. Lush green leaves contain more of the typical wild garlic aroma, of which unfortunately enough is lost when drying.

Drying in the air or in the oven

You can dry the wild garlic on a tray or tied into small bouquets and hung up to dry. However, you must ensure that all areas are well ventilated and shake the bouquets a few times if necessary. Otherwise, certain areas could remain too damp, allowing mold and rot to attack. Dried wild garlic can be produced faster in the oven, but the temperature should not be set higher than around 50 to 60 degrees Celsius during the drying process, which lasts several hours. Hold the oven door slightly ajar with a wooden spoon so that the moisture escaping from the stemmed leaves can escape more easily. Unfortunately, wild garlic is one of the spice plants that lose a lot of their actual aroma when dried. However, if you are one of those people for whom fresh wild garlic smells and tastes too intense, this property can turn out to be quite positive.

The long-term storage of wild garlic

You can crumble the dried wild garlic into small pieces with your fingers or crush them with a rolling pin. Only put it in screw-top jars with an airtight seal when it is really dry. In this way you can store the fine wild garlic spice powder for a few months without any further loss of aroma worth mentioning. As an alternative to drying, in addition to freezing, there is also the possibility of preparing the following intermediate products from wild garlic:

  • Wild garlic oil
  • Wild Garlic butter
  • Wild garlic pesto

Wild garlic oil, as an olive oil enriched with wild garlic aroma, can usually be kept at room temperature for at least one year. Wild garlic butter and wild garlic pesto can be stored in the fridge for a few weeks and frozen for much longer.

tips and tricks

Wild garlic buds can be pickled in vinegar like capers if they are harvested before the flowers open.

WK

The garden journal freshness ABC

How can fruit and vegetables be stored correctly so that they stay fresh for as long as possible?

The garden journal freshness ABC as a poster:

  • as a free PDF file to print out yourself

Category:

Herbs