It begins with a clove, buried in the soil on a warm day in late autumn. Long after the rest of the garden has been put to bed for the winter, green shoots poke up from the cold earth in the garlic patch. By spring, the leaves have taken shape, and the stems begin to thicken, hinting at swelling bulbs beneath the surface. And then those leaves start to turn brown, in June, and a digging fork loosens the soil to reveal plump, white garlic bulbs. These can be used fresh, of course, but hanging them up to cure for a few weeks will help them keep through winter.
Take it a step further. Separate the cloves, peel off their papery skin, slice them, dehydrate them. Breathe deeply; inhale the permeating aroma of garlic. Run the crispy garlic pieces through a small blender until they become a fine powder. Mix the powder with sea salt. Dry it again, in the oven this time. Bottle it. Enjoy.
Garlic salt takes a lot of work to produce, but the work doesn’t happen all at once, and the result is worth it.
If you’ve bought garlic salt from me before, you may notice a difference in color with this batch. Previously, I made it with pink Himalayan salt, but I have since learned that is a finite resource and switched instead to sea salt, which results in a paler – but no less flavorful – final product.
So, I will finally have more garlic salt at the market this Saturday! Because it’s handmade with my own garlic, I have a limited quantity, so you’ll want to come out in the next couple weeks to make sure you get a bottle. I will also have the first heads of lettuce, lots of kale, and a few bunches of radishes, as well as crocheted items and aloe plants.
See you at the market!