Fermented Garlic

Fermented Garlic is a two ingredient wonder! Between the garlic and the honey, there are so many healing properties that when combined, it's about as super food as you can get when you add the fermentation process. I started this project knowing that I'd be using fresh garlic and my own harvested honey that my bees worked so hard for. This Fermented Garlic short shows how I did it and just how simple it can be to do it on your own.

How much you want to make will determine how much you want. I made about two pints total.

Supplies for one pint:

• One pint honey
• 2 -3 heads of garlic
• One pint jar
• One 2 part canning jar lid (flat portion and rim)

When you choose your garlic heads, try to get the "prettiest" ones you can, this way from the start, there are no blemishes to worry about. Then, take the outer layer of "paper" off the outer portion of the garlic head. After that, take each clove off the base of the garlic. Make sure that you have at least two heads, if not three, for each pint you are making.

At this point, you need to take the remaining paper off each clove. The easiest way to do that is to cut the off that was attached at the bottom of the head, where the roots were. Once the cloves are striped down, they can go into the jar they will ferment in.

Now that your cloves of garlic are peeled and in the jar, simply fill the remaining space with the honey you have. As I mentioned earlier, the honey I am using I harvested from my own bees and it has a nice light flavor on it's own, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it works with the garlic.

Now, all you need to do is set up your two part canning lid on the jar, tighten up and wait. I will warn you that the garlic will float to the top of the honey. Because of that, I did flip the jar over several times a day. The first time though - I left it for too long and it exploded on my cabinet shelf, leaking onto my counter. So, just remember to not only turn over the jar right side up, but also burp the jar reguarly so as not to have too much pressure build up in the jar. As well, "to burp" something like this fermented garlic means to release the air from inside so that the pressure doesn't build up to make an explosion. In the end, with this batch, I did two jars of fermented garlic, the first with two heads, the second with three, just to see if there was much of a difference in flavor and time to ferment. Good luck with yours, and I hope you enjoy!