This might seem like a rambling post about growing garlic rather than the garlic peeler roller, but until I got one I nearly gave up growing my own – it’s measurably harder to peel homegrown garlic because even when dried properly, it’s still a lot fresher than store bought.
Growing your own garlic is one of the easiest and most rewarding garden tasks. You split a whole bulb up into cloves then plant the cloves individually just covering each cloves neck about 6 inches apart.
You may need to water in very dry weather, then when the tops die back you harvest them. They grow well in pots and have few needs.
Why Grow Garlic When You Can Easily Buy It?
Well, you can’t buy ‘wet’ garlic from the store, all garlic is wet before maturing, being dug then dried and sent to the shops.
The flesh inside a wet immature clove is sweeter and much milder – though still very pungent and totally delicious used in salad dressings, for garlic butter, and with delicate lamb dishes. And of course, it’s free!
Garlic’s Easy Until You Try to Peel It!
Thus far garlic is easy until you come to peel it! Elephant garlic is a real favorite with us for tomato salads, but delicious or not it often ends up being roasted in the peel with root veggies, because it’s so darned difficult to get the skin off.
I’ve tried every method known to womankind and so far other than the garlic peeler roller tube, the only method coming close to simple and clean, is the ‘flat of a knife and bash it’ trick.
This works most of the time, with only occasional necessary forays under the refrigerator or dishwasher to retrieve a runaway clove, though I have been known to shoot one straight at my dear husband – by accident of course, how could you think otherwise!
I don’t mind pressing, chopping, slicing or grinding garlic cloves, it’s the pesky peeling that drives me beserko plus the sticky secretions garlic leaves on your hands!
The Garlic Peeler Roller Is Sheer Genius
Until my brother threw – literally threw – one of these Zak garlic peeler roller thingy’s at me (he means well).
Have you seen these before? I’ve seen them all right but baulked at the price for what seems like a badly cut three-inch flexible rubber tube.
Wrong! Huge mistake – these are worth every cent – and don’t let anyone tell you they don’t make peeling garlic a breeze.
In go the cloves all tightly wrapped in their pink translucent pajamas, out rolls clean unmarked un-squashed garlic cloves ready to use – just magical! Thanks, Bro’.
If you’re doing quite a few cloves, every now and again you do need to just tap out the loose skins inside the tube, and on you go again.
When I first used the Zac Rolley thingy, paperclips came to mind because it’s another really simple ‘design’ that solves a real sticky problem!
If like me you’ve seen these and thought ‘not worth it’, then like me you’re wrong!
I only used it once before ordering five to go in Christmas stockings, that’s how well it works. I rarely to never say ‘go buy’ something to anyone, but if you hate peeling the skin off garlic cloves, then you have got to get one of these!
One small point though –
These vary in price on Amazon enormously – the link below takes you to several including the one I have pictured above (the cheapest) but please just be aware of the price differences.