I've been getting into lacto fermentation lately, even went out and bought a 5 liter fermentation crock (but you don't need it, mason jars work fine). The basics of lacto fermentation is to submerge vegetables in an around 5% saline solution which will make an impossible environment for harmful bacteria to exist, but will allow the the lactobacillus bacteria to thrive. Lactobacillus is literally everywhere, and normally it kind of just sits there doing nothing. When placed in an anaerobic environment, however, it starts to 'pre-digest' things, both preserving food, and unlocking nutrients for the human gut biome. The saline solution prevents nasties from growing.
Long story short fermentation has been the primary method of food preservation since pre-history, and humans evolved to crave it. That's why we like pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi, etc. Only in the past 100 years or so has widespread refrigeration been a thing, and it's kind of fucked up our body's evolved method of keeping shit regular (literally).
Simple recipe, fermented garlic. Go down to your local bulk grocery situation, and buy a 5 pound bag/gallon plastic jar of peeled garlic. Last time I did this I went to a Gordon Food Service for the gallon jug, and I fermented it in its own container. If you buy it in a large bag you'll need a crock or large 1/2 gallon mason jars. All you need to do is mix up a big batch of saline solution; put container on scale, tare, fill with water, record and tare, multiply water weight by .05, add that much pickling or kosher salt (NOT IODIZED TABLE SALT, IT WILL KILL YOUR FERMENT!!!!!!!!!). Pour saline solution in the vessel until it covers the garlic, and use something to keep the garlic submerged. This can either be a weight, or literally make a ziplock bag full of saline water to stuff into the top of the jar to keep it submerged.
If using a mason jar either use an airlock lid, or you can even use a regular canning lid tuned upside down, and a jar ring not even finger tight. Lactobacillus produces CO2 and lactic acid as byproducts, so you want airflow out with reasonable protection from airflow in. Store at room temperature for 3 weeks with a tray to catch potential liquid overflow. After the 3 weeks there will be a milky quality to the liquid, and some of the garlic will turn green, this is perfectly normal and safe.
Take the container, seal it up, and put it in the fridge. It will now last for 2 years under refrigeration, the garlic will have lost all its raw garlic bite (you can literally snack on it), and the fermentation liquid is hyper-infused with salty garlic flavor for pouring a few tablespoons into sauces. The only thing that's odd is that you need to use at least 1.5 times the garlic any recipe calls for, but who the fuck cares, you just preserved 5 pounds of it.
. I make garlic infused olive oil, but then I dump the cloves out or use them immediately for something else. I'm sure fermenting probably takes care of any botulism worries, though.
