My garden is overrun with Bärlauch, and I am looking for new ideas for how to preserve it.
I’ve done the classic pesto, which needs refrigerated. Put up dozens of jars and there is no more room in my fridge.
I’ve frozen cubes of chopped leaves - and now am out of space in my tiny freezer.
Anyone have a suggestions for preserving Bärlauch that doesn’t require refridgeration or freezing?
Many thanks!
Fermentation? If you don’t mind your house smelling a bit farty for a while:
I made 400+ ricotta gnudi (very minimal wheat flour) with the local bounty. Frozen, they can provide a quick dinner. I forget your dietary restrictions…
Dry it? Should store quite easily once dry… mind you, it wont be the same as fresh or frozen, but still edible.
I’ve got the same problem, tons of the stuff down by the stream and no-one wants it; I’ve even asked the neighbours in my hamlet if they’d like to come and pick some but they didn’t seem interested which surprised me.
Am planning to make some wild garlic salt, seems easy enough to do and should keep reasonably well. Might even make a start on Christmas pressies if I feel motivated enough!
Sorry I am so late replying. Bärlauch season has kept me busy!
Thanks for the ideas one and all.
So after having run out of space in the fridge and freezer, after sticking Bärlauch in just about everything I’ve cooked these days, after the neighbors have started to hide when they see me for fear of being offered yet more Bärlauch, I settled for drying and powdering for ‘shelf stable’ preservation.
Easy-peasy using my dehydrator. (I treated myself to an upgrade last year and boy what a difference!) Only issue is that Bärlach is VERY pungent while drying. So to avoid garlic-scenting the entire house, I moved the dehydrator outside. Once the leaves were dried I powdered them, several kilos of fresh Bärlauch is now neatly and compactly preserved in half a dozen small jars, enough to see me through the year. Or maybe decade.
I still have Bärlauch everywhere in the garden - heck, it has even popped up in between the granite flags on the patio. Thanks to the recent warm spell, though, it’s now in flower, so likely past it’s eating prime. But there is always next year…
Again, thanks for the ideas and suggestions!
Just be cautious - lily of the valley looks a lot like barlauch, and given recent events with a dehydrator in Australia…
You might not want to be caught talking about your dehydrator online! /s
On a serious note though - do you have an air dehydrator or a vacuum / freeze drier? Looking to upgrade to a freeze dryer, but it’s (substantially) more expensive… and bulky…
The perfume is the dead giveaway. No pun, etc.
I have an air dehydrator, a Rommelsbacher DA 900, bought from Galaxus:
https://www.galaxus.ch/de/s2/product/rommelsbacher-da-900-doerrautomat-12293876
I love this model because it’s so solid. The tray grids are metal making clean-up a breeze. The motor is in the back, giving better air flow than those with the motor in the base.Great value for the price. For years I had an inexpensive (like under CHF 50) Betti Bossi, which was OK-ish but had some annoying issues with evenness of drying and temperature. No complaints after a season of use with the Rommelsbacher. Tomatoes and fruit dry in about half the time, with better texture and flavor.
Only thing I might do differently is get the larger model, DA 1000, with 9 trays. (My DA 900 has 5.) That would be handy when a lot of produce comes in at once. Maybe if we have a good harvest this year…
I wasn’t even aware that home air/freeze dryers existed until I read your post. Did a bit of googling… seriously cool machines, but holey moley the price! My small Swiss garden doesn’t produce enough to justify that, but if I a larger ‘homestead’ I might be tempted.
As is, though, I can processs most of what I grow on my little postage stamp of a plot with my air dryer and home canning.
Since I’m pulling the Bärlauch from my garden rather than forraging in the woods, I’m not worried about a mix-up with Lily of the Valley. I do have some Lily of the Valley, but it is confined to the front garden, where all plants that are not wholly mutt-safe go, and for some reason it has never spread. The Bärlauch spreads like wildfire, but I only harvest from the back garden, where I know there is no Lily of the Valley.
Once you get to know both plants it is easy to see how different they are - especially, as Bossybaby says, thanks to the Bärlauch smell. But I could see how someone foraging in the woods, especially if a newbie, might make that tragic mistake.
Indeed - the 1-2k price is what stops me at the moment… also because I mainly do jerky/biltong for now, and dried chopped garden produce… which like you, is limited to 4-5 months a year and not industrial quantities…
What I like of the freeze dryers are the ability to make food that is shelf stable for 25 years + (apparently) not lose on the color/looks… and I want to try drying liquids (e.g. eggs, tomato paste, etc)…
But it’s definitely a “want” and not a “need”!!!
I’ve read you can eat the flowers. tried it and they are perfect to flavor salads.
you can also make flavoured vinegar out of the flowers…same as garlic or chives.