It would be the same for us, GREEN. We certainly would eat them before they began to go soft and/or lose their flavor. The problem for me is that I plan on putting back perhaps ten pounds of garlic this year. There will be twelve varieties. Preparing it all for the freezer would be quite the chore. Well, I wouldn't have to do all of it, since my hope is to have enough of my own garlic to plant in October. I always say that each year: "I will put back enough to eat and to plant". It never happens. We end up eating it until September, then see that there is no way we'll have enough to plant what I want to plant AND have enough to last until the next harvest. So I end up buying my "seed" garlic every September! But the harvest looks to be so good this year, I think I can do both. Thus my ten pound goal.
We have established a pecking-order for our garlic. By mid-June, I will have all the garlic bagged-up. I put all the garlic in brown-paper, sandwich size bags, 1/4-1/2 lb. per bag. Each bag will be labeled with the variety and whether it is hardneck, softneck, or Creole. My wife doesn't know one variety from the other, but she does know the three main categories. She knows to begin with the hardneck, and once that is all used up, she will go to the softneck, and finally, by mid to late winter, we'll begin using the Creole. She just opened up the last 1/4 lb. bag of Creole and we should use the last of it just about when I begin to bag up my hardneck. Creole, when properly stored, will remain firm and flavorful for an entire year.
