Short-term storage in the refrigerator
When you have the harvested leaves or blossoms want to use up within a few days, you can put the wild garlic with a few drops of water in a freezer bag and put it in the refrigerator, sealed. Since the leaves are very sensitive to pressure, you should be very careful during harvest and transport so as not to have to accept any loss of aroma. Washing the wild garlic is often not advised in favor of the aroma. In any case, you should wash the wild garlic thoroughly if it is wild garlic from areas close to the forest. In this way you usually rule out a risk from the fox tapeworm pathogen without heating the leaves. For freezing or further processing, you can dry the washed leaves by dabbing them with a soft kitchen towel.
also read
- Spring herbal cuisine with wild garlic
- Harvest wild garlic properly for use in the kitchen
- Can the wild garlic also be dried for storage?
The processing of wild garlic into intermediate products
While that Drying the leaves leads to a strong loss of flavor in wild garlic, freezing the whole or chopped leaves will give better results. Often the wild garlic is also processed into intermediate products of the following types before storage:
- Wild garlic pesto
- Wild Garlic butter
- Wild garlic oil
Wild garlic pesto and wild garlic butter can be kept for a few weeks if chilled and for months in frozen form. Portioning in ice cube molds is recommended so that the wild garlic aroma can be thawed and used in the right amount. For the wild garlic oil, finely chopped wild garlic leaves are placed in olive oil, so the fine garlic aroma of the wild garlic can be preserved for up to a year.
Always enjoy the wild garlic fresh
When you buy wild garlic in a pot, you should only cut off as much wild garlic as you actually use in the kitchen. After all, the wild garlic loses some of its freshness and aroma every time it is stored, even for a short time. If you collect your wild garlic in the forest, you can also transport it home with some water in an inflated plastic bag on warm days. The moisture protects the leaves from drying out and the air cushion of the plastic bag prevents pressure points on the leaves.
Tips & Tricks
If you still have wild garlic but little time to spare, you can prepare some wild garlic oil within a very short time. Simply put the whole leaves, washed and patted dry, in an empty bottle and pour on with olive oil. The oil has absorbed the fine wild garlic aroma after about a month and can thus be used to refine dishes.
WK
The garden journal freshness-ABC
How can fruit & vegetables be stored correctly so that they stay fresh as long as possible?
The garden journal freshness ABC as a poster:
- as free PDF file to print out on your own
