Who doesn’t love free food?
We so appreciate being able to harvest our own Wild Garlic from the woods down here in Arkansas. First off, it is free! Moreover, it can be trusted, since we can watch it grow. Even more than that, it is amazing to be able to collect an immune system boosting plant ever summer and save it for the upcoming cold and flu season of the winter months. Now this is my kind of health plan and medicine.
Mixed in with all the other wild plants at the forests edge lurks the Wild Garlic!
When you find the top of the plant, it should be easy to accurately identify.
To verify, grab the stem firmly near the base and pull it up.
If you have accurately located the correct plant, it should have a Garlic bulb on the end of it. If you have waited a little too long in the growing season, the stem will come up empty and the bulb will remain underground. No worries, though, they will grow back again next year.
While the top can also be used as a food, you may want to consider another option.
If you crumble the head in your hand, all the tiny little garlics will break free from the stem. These little garlics can then be spread to ensure future harvests.
We like to sprinkle the little garlics back in the same area that we uprooted the bulbs from. Not only has this area already proven itself as an area that can produce a crop, we are already accustomed to looking in this location for Wild Garlic.
Gather a good amount of bulbs. In time you will be able to know what your family generally uses on a yearly basis and be able to harvest accordingly.
I like to bend the stems right away to get them flexible and prepared for the braiding.
If you rinse the dirt off of the bulbs at harvest they will be already clean when you want to use them later.
Once all of your bulbs are washed, you are ready to begin!
Begin the process by selecting three bulbs and start to braid their stems.
Continue adding a bulb each time you braid, to create a continuous braid covered in bulbs.
Once you run out of bulbs to add, continue braiding the existing stems until you reach the end. Tie the braid in a knot and hang in the sun to dry.
Ideally this should be done prior to using all of your supply from last year. Repeat as necessary.
As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:
proof-of-wild-garlic-saved-for-winter
Until next time…
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