Ahhh... Summer is over and the garlic has all been brought in from the fields, been sold at the markets and everyone is enjoying the wonderful harvest of 2003. The early harvest bulbs were big and tasty. The late harvest was a bit smaller, but just as wonderful. We are truly blessed. And we are reeking with the best of them... BUT...

I have a bunch of garlic left and even though garlic has a great shelf life, I have boxes and boxes. So what to do?

First of all store your garlic in a well ventilated place. We have a couple of baskets in our kitchen hanging from a cup hook under the cupboards. We have found that this keeps the garlic out of the sun and in a nice dry place. This is just great if you have a few heads around, but if you have more, you have to get ready for storage.

Fresh garlic seems to last a long time when it is braided. Five to seven months at least. Sometimes longer. Loose bulbs are good for at least four to six months. When the summer take is used up and it's the dead of winter in the United States, it is harvest time for countries at and below the equator. Look for these winter treats in specialty stores in your neighborhood or on the Internet. It is a global family now anyway.

You will find some nice verities out there.

But if you have some extra garlic laying around, here's a couple of ways to use it up and store it for your use.

We have heard of people freezing garlic and as far as I know this can work. The way we freeze garlic is to roast it first. Just place fifty to one hundred cloves on a baking sheet at a time. Drizzle some olive oil on them and cover them with foil. Poke a couple of holes in the foil with a tooth pick. Now stick the tray in an oven at about 300 to 350 degrees. Let them bake until they are soft. (about an hour or so.) Peel off the foil for the last fifteen minutes and the little cloves will caramelize very nicely.

Let them cool and then put them in a quart size baggy. Mash them up and flatten out the baggy. Put these bags in the freezer. Whenever you need that nice roasted garlic in a soup, stew, eggs, BBQ or I guess anytime, open up that little baggy, break off a piece and drop it in your recipe. That's it and it works great. You can save that summer garlic and use it all winter long.

I have a customer in Albuquerque that has a dehydrator and stinks up the neighborhood around this time of year. He slices it thin and dry's it out. He bottles it up and enjoys his dried garlic all year long. He also grinds it up and makes a killer garlic powder. This is a messy process and does make the garage reek real good, so be ready for that.

There is a group of families in Minnesota that we have the pleasure of meeting each year and they brew up a garlic BBQ sauce that will blow your socks off. It's great and we are lucky enough to score a bottle a year. We use it up pretty fast and wish they would make bigger batches, more of it or put it on the market. It's loaded with their fresh, homegrown garlic and I think this is a way to save our little bulbous wonder for the winter months too.

So there's some ideas. If you have more, just drop us a line at info@patthegarliclady.com and we will publish them up here for the world to read. We all need to share our ideas with everyone. Don't let a good idea die at your house.

Good luck and continue to spread the garlic!