Drying wild garlic - how to do it right

Can the wild garlic also be dried for storage?

Harvest and prepare the wild garlic properly

It makes a difference whether you bought the wild garlic used in your kitchen in a pot, harvested it in an enclosed garden or collected it in the forest. Wild garlic collected in the wild carries a certain (albeit small) risk of contamination with the pathogens of the so-called fox tapeworm. You should therefore wash the wild garlic leaves thoroughly before each further use, especially if they are to be used in uncooked dishes. When drying or freezing, washing the wild garlic may seem counterproductive, but you can pat the pressure-sensitive leaves dry with a soft cloth before further processing. In addition, the drying result will not improve if you harvest leaves that are almost withered after heat waves and periods of drought.Lush green leaves contain more of the typical wild garlic aroma, of which unfortunately enough is lost when drying.

Drying in the air or in the oven

You can dry the wild garlic on a tray or tied into small bunches and hung up. However, you must make sure that all areas are well ventilated and shake the bouquet a few times if necessary. Otherwise certain areas could remain too moist, which would lead to mold and rot spots. Dried wild garlic can be produced faster in the oven, but the temperature should not be set higher than around 50 to 60 degrees Celsius during the drying process, which takes several hours. Hold the oven door ajar with a wooden spoon so that the moisture escaping from the stalked leaves can be better drawn off. Unfortunately, wild garlic is one of the aromatic plants that lose a lot of their actual aroma when they dry.However, if you are one of those people for whom fresh wild garlic smells and tastes too intense, this property can also turn out to be quite positive.

Long-term storage of wild garlic

You can crumble the dried wild garlic into small pieces with your fingers or use a rolling pin. Do not put it in jars with an airtight seal until it is really dry. In this way you can keep the fine wild garlic seasoning powder for a few months without any significant loss of flavor. As an alternative to drying, in addition to freezing, there is also the option of preparing the following intermediate products from wild garlic:

Wild garlic oil
Wild Garlic butter
Wild garlic pesto

Wild garlic oil as olive oil enriched with wild garlic aroma can usually be kept for at least one year at room temperature. Wild garlic butter and wild garlic pesto can be stored in the refrigerator for a few weeks or even longer if frozen.