Sorry it took so long for me to come back to this thread!!
Oberon46, I think your growing conditions in Anchorage are very similar -- if not better than -- what we have in the Michigan UP (although I am in the "southern UP," which is certainly a lot better than the "northern UP"). This past winter you had MUCH better temps than we did, so I'm hoping my garlic is going to be okay; the last snow just left my garden and I have "floating row cover" over the patch of garlic and haven't actually looked under there yet, but it does appear that things are poking up. Fortunately there was at least 3-4 feet of snow covering the garlic so it was well insulated and I suspect it will have done fine. The garlic does need a fair amount of moisture, but likes well-drained soil. As DrDawg said, there are LOTS of great varieties of garlic, really pretty interesting how different they can be. I personally prefer the hard-neck type just because all the cloves are similar size and just easier to deal with. As far as preserving, if the cloves are peeled and stored in oil in the refrigerator they would probably be okay, but not at room temp -- I've read that the oil provides a perfect environment for botulism. I store my garlic (after curing in the shade for a couple of weeks) pretty much the same as DrDawg described -- in paper bags, which I leave in my unheated (but rarely goes below freezing in there) garage. You can also peel the cloves and put them in a jar filled with a mixture of vinegar, sugar and salt (1 cup peeled cloves; 1/2 cup rice vinegar, white wine vinegar or distilled white vinegar; 1/2 tsp sugar; 1/2 tsp pickling salt), tightly covered with a nonreactive cap and stored in the refrigerator, which will keep for a year or more.
Incidentally, use reasonable care when breaking apart the cloves from the garlic head for planting, so as not to damage the end where the roots will form. And plant with the pointy side up!!
