Garlic is among the most useful and commonly grown herbs, spices, and root vegetables in gardens all across the world. It’s easy-to-grow qualities and versatile uses in food preparation, cleaning, and other areas can make it a great addition to any yard. But garlic tends to be incredibly tough to separate and peel. From the cloves sticking together to the mess that shedding the outer peel leaves behind, peeling garlic definitely isn’t something most people look forward to. Luckily, TikTok content creator Annabethblooms has a helpful hack for removing garlic stems with a simple, swift maneuver to aid in this process.
Sending the gardening side of TikTok into a tizzy as her video reaches more than 500,000 views and counting, Annabethblooms demonstrated a no-brainer way to remove a garlic’s stem by slamming the root end against a hard surface, which makes separating the cloves much easier to manage. This hack seems to work for many who have tried it in the comments, and she has even taken the time to address any concerns and questions viewers may have. You’ll surely want to keep this party trick in mind as you plant garlic for the upcoming season.
Removing your garlic’s stem
@annabethblooms
Testing out a garlic planting hack 🧄🌱 What do you guys think?! Can’t believe it actually worked!! #garlic #garlicplanting #hardneckgarlic #fallgarden #fallgardening #gardenersoftiktok #zone5b #zone5bgardening #zone5 #zone5gardening #gardentok #gardeningtiktok
♬ original sound – Annabeth
In her viral garlic hack video, content creator Annabethblooms shows viewers how to remove their garlic stem in seconds. Taking the head of the garlic with the root end facing up, she bangs it against the side of her wooden gardening box. The root pops up, and she swiftly pulls out the entire core. She repeats this on a few other heads of garlic, with the same successful result each time. Commenters noted that this is an interesting hack but questioned its purpose. Annabethblooms explained that it helps with separating garlic cloves, especially if you plan to plant them since each clove’s papery shell should stay as intact as possible.
Some may be unaware that garlic cloves can be planted a few inches into the ground, with each clove growing into a new head of garlic. But before anyone runs to the grocery store to purchase garlic so they can try this hack at home, the TikToker made some crucial distinctions. She stressed that store-bought garlic tends to be soft-neck, and this hack will only be successful on hard-neck garlic growing in your garden. It can be challenging to differentiate between hard and soft neck garlic, but traditionally, soft neck will be more malleable and not as thick and frail as a hard neck. Overall, if you’re dealing with hard-neck garlic and need to separate the cloves for additional crops or cooking, this is one gardening hack you’ll want to try.
