Our friends Ian and Diana Ditchfield are small scale garlic growers based in the NSW Central Tablelands. Their crops are grown chemical free, and lovingly tended by hand.
This year they’ve grown Australian White Garlic ($25/kg or $15/500g)…
…Australian Red Garlic ($25/kg or $15/500g), my new favourite…
The cloves have a gorgeous reddish tinge...
…and Purple Stripe Garlic ($30/kg or $18/500g).
If you’re based in Australia and would like to purchase from the Ditchfields, please drop them an email at anarelfarm(at)gmail.com. Due to quarantine restrictions, they’re unable to ship to South Australia, Tasmania or Western Australia, and their minimum order is 500g, although they’re happy to sell in mixed lots (postage will be extra).
I’ve bought a kilo of each variety! As I do every year, I’ve broken two-thirds of the bulbs up and frozen the cloves for use over the next 12 months. With all the recent concerns about imported garlic, it’s nice to know that we’ll have a plentiful supply for the upcoming year!
Garlic cloves, separated but unpeeled, vacuum-sealed ready for freezing.
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Addendum: Here’s a photo of last year’s frozen garlic, which I’ve pulled out to use up now that the new season crop has arrived. It’s been in our stand-alone freezer for a full year, and is still perfect for cooking!
Variety is the spice of life.
Peter, it really is! And it’s such a joy at this time of year to have an abundance of garlic to play with!
Makes me wish I was based in Australia. Looks wonderful.
Thanks Greg! I’m sure you must have amazing garlic over there though?
They seem so nice… And your photographs are amazing too… I always use garlic in my cooking… Thank you dear Celia, have a nice weekend, with my love, nia
Thanks Nia, your photography is fantastic, so I’m touched that you liked my photos. Garlic is very photogenic! :)
I love garlic, but don’t keep a lot of fresh garlic around because it goes bad before I can use it up. It’s interesting that you freeze the cloves. I’ve never heard of anyone doing that. Do they still have a fresh flavor after freezing? I’ll have to try that, so I can have fresh garlic anytime I want it! Thank you!
Michelle, I only use the frozen garlic for cooking, and it’s completely fine. I find it still has a lot of flavour, and is dead simple to peel after it’s been frozen. Best of all is not having to throw out bad garlic that’s been stored too long – in Sydney’s humidity, that tends to happen far too often!
Do you freeeze them with the skins on? I remembered you did this and froze the last of our french garlic before Christmas, otherwise it would start shooting! but I peeled mine before putting them in the freezer. However, we can still get European garlic here, though it is more costly than the Chinese sort. I put some roast garlic paste mixed through with butter in the freezer today, we’ll see how it goes when it defrosts. I hope your friends’ business goes well, their garlic looks superb :)
Jo, I’ve added a photo of last year’s garlic so you can see how it looks when it comes out of the freezer. We don’t peel ours before freezing, but we do break it into cloves and vacuum seal it as you can see in the second last photo. The vac sealing helps, but I don’t think it’s essential – I just do it to give the garlic extra protection until I get around to using it in a few months time when the fresh stuff has run out. Di and Ian are the nicest people!
Celia – how do you prepare the garlic for freezing? Freezing the cloves whole would be brilliant, but does it work? We tried mashing raw garlic with olive oil and freezing it once, the theory being that you could scoop teaspoonfuls out when needed. In reality, it froze hard and we couldn’t use it without thawing the whole tub.
Choc, I think we might have had a discussion about this last year – was it you who told me that mashing or chopping up the garlic before freezing was supposed to preserve more of its goodness?
I’ve added a photo of the frozen garlic so you can see what it looks like after a year in the freezer. We just break it into unpeeled cloves and vac-seal them before freezing. As I said to Jo, I’m not sure the vac-sealing is essential, but it gives the garlic a little extra protection against freezer burn. The frozen cloves are much softer and easier to peel, but they keep most of their flavour and aroma. Here’s the post I wrote on it last year…
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2011/01/08/frozen-garlic/
and a photo of the defrosted and peeled cloves – as you can see, they turn quite translucent and the texture changes a bit..
Mine arrived yesterday. Thanks again for the tip, Celia. I love being able to buy directly from the farmer.
Jo, thanks so much for supporting them! :)
Great idea freezing it to have on hand whenever you want it! I can’t imagine cooking without garlic.
Becca, freezing means never having to buy imported garlic! That makes me happy! :)
Celia, I have never thought of freezing garlic, although I always seem to be able to source Australian garlic. How do you freeze it please and does it keep well? Love to hear back from you. Thanks for another interesting post with wonderful providore information!
Lizzy, we can’t seem to buy Aussie garlic in the middle of the year, although there’s always heaps available December to February. I freeze the garlic as shown in the photo above – broken into unpeeled cloves and then vacuum-sealed. It keeps brilliantly for a year in our stand-alone freezer (not sure if it would last as long in the freezer section of a standard fridge?).
Here’s the post I wrote about it last year:
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2011/01/08/frozen-garlic/
I froze some last year after reading your post last season. I didn’t have a vacuum thing, so I just put them in ziploc bags in the freezer and they were fine. Used my last ones the week I pulled up this years crop :)
Michelle, thanks so much for letting me know! How fabulous that you can grow enough to last an entire year! We only ever manage a piddly crop – I don’t think the conditions in Sydney are quite right for growing large corms…
Thanks Celia, I remember this from your last post about it. I am going to order some today. Thank you.
Deb, thank you for supporting them, they’re the nicest people! My pick this year is the Aussie Red, it’s looking gorgeous!
I’m sending this info to my niece in Canberra. Is that too far away for her to order? She is a GREAT fan of garlic!
Nope, they should be able to send it there! :) Thanks Heidi!
Wow! You are so lucky to have such wonderful friends – I envy those with a green thumb.
Will definitely be dropping them a line for some of this garlic as I despise seeing those Chinese and Mexican imports at the green grocer.
Christie, thank you! They are wonderful friends, and their garlic is fabulous! :)
Thanks for this post Celia. I try to use local garlic when I can, but it isn’t always available. I tried to buy a beautiful tied string of local garlic last week at the farmers market, but my husband pointed out that we’d never use it all in time as I’m away for almost a month and then 2 of our kids won’t be around. I wish I’d thought of freezing it (although then I couldn’t have had it hanging in the kitchen, could I?).
Amanda, freezing the garlic has meant we can buy in bulk – otherwise we find it just doesn’t last a whole year in our humid Sydney weather! The trip sounds exciting, really looking forward to reading about your adventures.. :)
Oh Celia thanks for this! We have none in the garden at the moment so will take advantage of this info. Isn’t it lovely to share excitement about good garlic. :)
Rose, thank you! I’m always so chuffed when my order arrives, both because the garlic is fabulous, and because it’s a chance to catch up with Ian and Di when they drop it off!
HI Celia,
Im a regular stalker of your blog. I just love it. I wanted to let you know two days ago i made your marshmallow and some of it made it into rocky road. I read your blog about once a week and rave about it to all my foodie friends. One of my fav is your slab chocolate cake. Im from SA and bake and cook, spend hours in my vegie patch with my girls (chooks) and two two legged small girls. Just wanted after a few years of stalking to say hi…….
Paulene
Paulene, how nice to hear from you! Thank you for dropping in to leave a comment. I’m glad you liked the marshmallow – I’ve just been looking at the last of our batch and wondering how to use it up.. :) Thanks for reading!
If there is no garlic in heaven, I ain’t goin’….
I agree with Cosmo. A garlic less world would be very sad!
Cosmo, Brydie, how could it be heaven if there was no garlic? :)
I also love the red garlic a lot! I didn’t now that you could freeze garlic! What a neat idea!
Is it better to freeze the garlic with or without skin? What do you think, Celia?
Sophie, I always freeze them broken up into cloves and unpeeled, but Jo (below) also freezes them chopped up and spooned into icecube trays! :)
Here’s the post I wrote about it last year:
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2011/01/08/frozen-garlic/
It looks beautiful. I just wish that I loved garlic!
Thanks C! I guess it’s not for everyone.. :)
Adding my comments on freezing the garlic – as well as freezing the whole cloves I chop a heap up in the food processor and then freeze that in ice cube trays. When it’s frozen I knock the cubes out of the tray and keep them in a freezer bag. Then I defrost a cube for whatever is cooking – no chopping! You can also do this with ginger. My cloves have been in the freezer in just a freezer bag for 12 months with no problems. Great for roasted garlic although I think the cooking time is a bit less than for fresh.
Jo, Di was telling me when I last saw her that she’d sent some up to you last year and that you’d re-ordered this year – she was very chuffed! :)
Chopping and freezing in icecube trays is a brilliant idea! The only thing we don’t use frozen garlic for is in recipes where it won’t be cooked, such as dips. We just enjoy those recipes when the garlic is in season! :)
I went through a couple of months without garlic as I was waiting for the new crop of Patrice Newell garlic. What a great idea freezing it for that time!
Lorraine, it certainly makes life easier! :)
Yum! I’ve been looking out for Australian garlic but it is so expensive up here. I don’t think I’ve seen it for less than $45/kg. I think I might ask for some for my Birthday!
Claire, it’s a lot cheaper than that, even with postage! The Australian red is looking very good this year. I’d love to get garlic as a birthday present! :)
Dear Celia,
Thumbs up for Aussie garlic because the flavour is so much more intense than the flood of those from China.
The one thing I can think of cooking with these garlic is Japanese style teppanyaki fried rice with freshly cracked black pepper, egg, soy sauce and some diced French beans, heaven!!
Chopinand, it really does sound like heaven! The garlic has a beautiful flavour!
What fantastic garlic photos!!
Thanks Tammy!
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