I've looked around a bit on this, but haven't really found an answer.

I have a patch of softneck garlic that didn't get harvested last year, and has produced sort of a super patch this year. A lot of the garlic is of a good size to pull for curing, but I have a lot of little bulbs in the harvest too, most of them are the size of pickling onions.

I know I can cook with freshly picked garlic... but can I pickle it? All of the recipes I find call for fresh garlic, but they mean cured garlic used fresh. So, does the curing process mean or do anything that's important to make it ok to pickle? Or can I go ahead and pickle up the freshly picked stuff?

Thanks in advance!