But how long does garlic really keep? And how should I be storing it to stretch its shelf life as long as possible? For the answers to these questions, we turned to food waste expert and founder of Local Roots (a service that provides New Yorkers with local and sustainable produce) Wen-Jay Ying. “Cured garlic will last about five to six months,” says Ying, “if stored properly.” Thanks to the skin on the garlic, it has its own self-preservation built in, which is why it’s best to leave it alone if you want it to last. Individual cloves with their skin on are more likely to last only a few weeks. “The best way to store garlic is to keep it whole, without peeling or separating the cloves,” she says, “When you separate a clove from the rest of the garlic, it reduces the shelf life, and when you peel that clove, it significantly reduces that shelf life even more to just a few days.” Have a ton of garlic, and want to make sure it keeps in a usable fashion? Like many other veggies, you can turn to pickling methods or the freezer to extend its life. “If you have a lot of garlic at home, a good way to preserve it before the garlic gets soft is to pickle them or freeze pre-sliced garlic,” says Ying. What about those green sprouts that seem to pop up out of nowhere? They’re a sign the garlic has started to turn, and while “you can eat the green sprouts,” shares Ying, “it will have a slightly different taste than the garlic bulb.” You can opt to try growing those sprouted cloves into garlic scapes by placing the clove in a glass of water—just don’t submerge it—and watch them grow.
