How to Braid Garlic

Last year I was given the task by my husband to clean and braid our first harvest of garlic straight from the garden. At first, I was really delighted about the idea. I had seen before beautiful organic braids of garlic back at the farmers markets in Australia and was itching to figure out how it was done. I had this image in my head of me, wearing a straw hat, pretending to be Martha Stewart as I effortlessly platted the perfect braid to hang in the kitchen…. But after a week of brushing dirt off what felt like MILLIONS of bulbs and getting extremely frustrated about my dodgy attempts, my image of Martha had slight. So with my first attempt being not so effortless, this year, I promised myself I’d make Martha proud….

What you’ll need

• 16 clean bulbs of garlic with long stems attached, roots cut off

• Brown twine

• A pair of scissor

Method

1. First, make sure your garlic is free from dirt and the stems have had enough time to dry as this will prevent rot.

2. Cut a piece of brown twine a little less than 2 meters and tie your bulbs together tightly. The string acts as reinforcement and it’s used to tie a loop at the end to hang your garlic. NB make sure to incorporate the brown twine into your braid by picking it up with the stems

3. Place another slightly larger bulb in the middle making sure the stem lies straight down…

4. Grab the stem on the Right and cross it over the middle stem, directing it straight down (You now should have 1 stem on the left, 1 stems in the middle and 2 on the right)

5. Grab a slightly smaller bulb and place in on the right hand side

6. Grab the stem on the left hand side and cross it over the middle…

Do you see the pattern that is forming? Whenever you place a piece of garlic to the braid you cross over the opposite side you did before and always direct the cross over back to the middle. I must admit, when I first started to learn this I would forget which side I had just done or where to place the next garlic so, to make things easier, I’ve written a pattern for you to follow so you don’t get lost.

Garlic braid Pattern (starting with 3 bulbs tied together)

• First bulb in the middle, cross over right side

• Second bulb on the right, cross over left side

• Third bulb on the left, cross over right side

• 4th bulb in the middle, cross over left side

• 5th bulb on the right, cross over right side

• 6th bulb on the left, cross over left side

• 7th bulb in the middle, cross over right side

• 8th bulb on the right, cross over left side

• 9th bulb on the left, cross over right side

• 10th bulb in the middle, cross over left side

• 11th bulb on the right, cross over right side

• 12th bulb on the left, cross over left side

• 13th bulb in the middle, cross over right side

• 14th bulb on the right, cross over left side

• 15th bulb on the left, cross over right side

• 16th bulb in the middle, cross over left side

NB: Depending on the size of your bulbs, you’ll find it difficult to braid anymore stems as it just gets too thick after a while...

1. Finish the braid by making a regular plate about half the length of the braid

2. Tie off your plat with a small piece of twine, cutting off any lose ends (leave the reinforcing twine free)

3. Cut off the excess stems leaving a clean line tuff

4. Grab the two pieces of reinforcing twine and knot them together to be able to hang your garlic where you like

And that’s it! Braided garlic to hang in your kitchen for that little touch on Italy! I think Martha Stewart would be proud ;)

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