Some time after the winter solstice, our garlic starts to sprout. This is a sign of healthy cloves doing exactly what they should do at this time of year. In the gardening cycle, I plant our Red Russian garlic cloves toward the end of September or beginning of October. They enjoy a cozy blanket of dried leaves until mid-February, and the sprouts will be well above ground in March.

However, the garlic that we did not plant but stored at home for our winter cooking won’t keep much longer now that it has started to grow. This is the time we preserve what’s left so we don’t lose any of our precious crop.

Lacto-fermentation of garlic is a simple process. It also brings a lot of benefits:

• The health-giving elements beloved of garlic enthusiasts remain intact. In fact, fermented garlic is easier to digest and doesn’t cause bad breath.
• Over time the garlic loses its raw spiciness and becomes deliciously mellow. Jim loves to eat it straight from the jar. People say that after a few years it actually becomes sweet, almost like a creamy candy. So far, ours has always been gone before that happened.
• Convenience – the peeling is done. Just reach into the fridge and grab what you need
• Fermented garlic will keep in its brine for many years. This is a safe method of putting by your garlic with no risk of botulism. The longer you keep it, the better it tastes.
• Fermented garlic provides you with probiotics if you don’t cook it so use it raw when possible. Also use the brine raw in salad dressings, sauces or as a finishing touch for your soup after it has been heated.

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Fermentation Method

Prepare the Jar

I like to make my ferments in wide-mouth canning jars. This is just my personal preference. People made ferments long before canning jars or accessories were invented. Use any sturdy glass jar that will hold the amount of garlic you have. Rinse the clean jar and lid with boiling water or run the jar through the dishwasher on the sanitize setting. Full sterilization is not necessary.

You will also need something to keep the garlic from floating above the brine. Years ago I bought glass “pickle pebbles” to weight my ferments.  I also bought “pickle pipes” to manage the release of gas that could otherwise build up and cause pressure and overflow. These are not essential, but I’ve always been grateful for them. Some people use airlock lids, others just burp the jar every day.

Prepare the Garlic

Break apart the bulbs and remove the papery husk from the garlic cloves. Don’t cut the garlic. Pack the cloves tightly into a glass canning jar. Leave about an inch and a half of headspace.

Prepare the Brine

Use filtered water since the chemicals in tap water will work against fermentation. Use pure salt without any additives. Garlic does well with a 2% brine which is 5 grams of salt ( about half a teaspoon) to 1 cup/250 ml water. Heat the water to boiling then stir in the salt until it’s dissolved. Let the brine cool to room temperature.

Pour the cooled brine to cover the garlic, then put in the weight to keep it submerged. Lightly screw on the lid. Write the date on the jar.

Set the jar on a plate in a room temperature location away from sunlight. You can cover it with a tea towel if you like. I keep mine on the counter in the corner of the kitchen so I remember to do the daily check-in.

Now You Wait

Every day, lift the lid to let out excess gas (or burp the pickle pipe). After four to seven days, you will see bubbles forming in and at the top of the brine. By ten days, the brine will be cloudy. All good. Let the garlic ferment for four to eight weeks. After that, remove the weight and the airlock lid if you used them, close the jar with a regular lid and keep the garlic in the fridge. It will last for years and improves over time.

Enjoy Your Fermented Garlic

Since we ferment garlic primarily to preserve the harvest, we use it in all the recipes all winter long. But I am still mindful of the probiotics that ferments offers, so I purposely use uncooked fermented garlic whenever I can. Hummus, guacamole and aioli are three tasty ways to incorporate it into our food. And I’m never without a jar of homemade chipotle mayo in the fridge.

Quick Chipotle Mayonnaise is simple and delicious. Stir together 1 cup mayonnaise and ½ to 1 teaspoon dried chipotle powder to taste, then add 1 to 2 finely minced fermented garlic cloves. Sweeten a bit if you like.

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Would you like to try another easy lacto-fermentation project? How about sauerkraut?

Sauerkraut