Whew -- pretty fragrant in my house right now!

My hardneck garlic was starting to go a little wonky (softneck varieties are better for storing), so I decided it finally time to get around to drying some to make garlic powder. Forgot what a pain it is to peel a whole bunch of garlic cloves... slicing is easier, using the food processor. Now it's all in the dehydrator out in the garage, but I swear I can still smell it (oh -- maybe it's my own hands that I can smell?)

At any rate, I'll again have a nice supply of garlic powder for the times that I don't want to be chopping up fresh garlic!

You know, Sandy, I have never tried to do anything with all the garlic we go through, other than using the fresh cloves. I have a feeling (more than a feeling ) that my wife would have to do the "dirty-work" and knowing her, the chances are slim and none that she would be willing to do it. I guess we will just continue using store-bought garlic powder/minced garlic. About the only thing we use it on is baked French bread.

LOL, Ken -- your wife is obviously smarter than I am! I must have harvested quite a bit more garlic than I usually do (maybe I should start weighing it, so I would actually know...), because I gave quite a bit away, and also used a good bit for replanting in the fall. And I still have plenty of the softneck garlic for fresh use.

I tried using the peeling method of putting the cloves in a jar and shaking it -- which didn't work at all for me (possibly because a lot of the cloves that I was using were pretty small).

Just from a common sense standpoint, I never really bought into the "jar" method. Therefore, I never tried it.

I never did either -- maybe that was the problem; might be one of those things that don't work unless you "believe" !

The fact that I tried it shows how desperate I was starting to feel; I did resort to using a little rubber tube thingy that my sister-in-law gave me a few years ago; it's about 4" long and maybe 1" in diameter, with little ridges on the inner surface -- you put a clove inside and roll it on the counter and it really does actually work, but if you roll too hard it shreds the clove up and not hard enough and it does nothing. Still, it WAS somewhat of an improvement over manually peeling (or at least it was a change of pace).

Weedwhacker said:I never did either -- maybe that was the problem; might be one of those things that don't work unless you "believe" !

Aww! It works for me, but I have to shake REALLY hard and fast. And keep it up for 10-30 seconds. I've used it for cloves as small as 1/3rd the last joint of my pinkie. I use a quart Mason jar and make sure some of the shaking goes 'the long way" so the cloves hit the glass bottom of the jar during the up-stroke.

(I cut a thin slice off the "root" end before shaking and sometimes cut a little off the tip end.)

And I do believe! The skin pops off whole for me.

Rick, I DID use a quart jar, and I cut the root end off... but this part: "I have to shake REALLY hard and fast. And keep it up for 10-30 seconds" may have been where I went wrong. LOL, might be easier to just tediously peel the cloves

How much garlic did you actually put in the jar at one time? Like, just covering the bottom, 1/4 full, ??

At any rate, it's dry now and the chips are filling a quart jar; tomorrow I'll grind some of it down to powder

Weedwhacker said: ... How much garlic did you actually put in the jar at one time? Like, just covering the bottom, 1/4 full, ?? ...

Ahh.

I've done only one or two big cloves at a time. I would guess that they have to be free to bounce from top to bottom without cushioning each others' fall. I might TRY barely covering the bottom, but I would guess that provides too much cushioning.

>> LOL, might be easier to just tediously peel the cloves

Awww, if we all felt that way, no one would ever do any Rube Goldberg schemes at all!

Sometimes it only takes me a few HARD shakes, other times it takes me a while to get into the rhythm.

I think the peels pop off when they hit the bottom of the jar extra-hard. I try to start the downstroke fast, so the cloves rise to the top and then are THROWN down fast. Then I try to snap the bottom of the downstroke back up, as if the glass jar had bounced off a hard surface. That way the jar is rising to hit the falling cloves as fast as possible. If I were coordinated, it might take only 1-2 strokes. But I'll never know, not being coordinated in this lifetime.

Hmm. The paint-shaking gadget at Home Depot. Hmmm ...

Great idea! Harbor Freight sells one for only $129.99 http://www.harborfreight.com/p...

Sandy, that's cool! Let's see, $130 would buy 6 pounds of heirloom garlic ... then I would NEED the paint-mixer!

We use 8-10 lbs. of garlic each year (kitchen use, not planting). Is this paint-mixer capable to shaking a quart size mason jar?

You might have to rig up a full-size paint can with internal braces to hold the Mason jar.

Maybe all it would take is an air cannon to shoot the cloves at a hard surface.

You could have one setting for "Peel" and another setting for "Puree".

The shaker is supposed to do 1-qt to 1-gallon cans of paint.

Now I think the air cannon sounds like even more fun, though!

I use my jar lid rubber gripper, to peel my garlic cloves. I just roll in the garlic clove and it gets peeled.

Tarev, that's pretty much the same idea as the "rubber tube thing" that I used -- it does definitely work! (in a much less dramatic fashion, as well as much less expensive, than the paint shaker or air gun )

Yup..easy peasy