Allium

Allium sativum, which in most homes goes by plain old garlic, has so many culinary and medicinal properties. Today's post will be a showcase of my home-grown-supremely-pungent-freshly-picked-and-hung-to-dry garlic! Oh, also I am going to discuss those culinary and medicinal properties.

Back in the fall I bought a head of garlic at my local farmer's market, divided it into individual cloves and planted the cloves 6 inches apart in my home garden. In the early spring each clove produced lots and lots of garlic greens. I used these aromatic scallion-like garlic tops in everything from soups to salads.

Over the last couple of week, the greens began to wilt and dry. This was my sign to harvest the garlic. Over the course of the winter with only a weekly watering, each little clove turned into a full head of garlic. After washing and drying the garlic bulbs, I braided and hung them to dry as my grandmother used to do. And voila ... Allium sativum in a braid!

Let's talk about the culinary properties of this lovely and supremely aromatic member of the onion mishpocha. Soups, stews, and roasted goodies just don't taste the same without a hint of garlic. Did you know that you can place a bulb of garlic in the oven while baking bread; then squeeze the bulb and spread the softened garlic on the freshly baked bread?

Allium's medicinal properties range from antibiotic, stimulation of perspiration, lowering of blood pressure, easing of tension, speeding up healing, balancing blood sugar and reducing cholesterol. Did you know that a clove of fresh pressed garlic can be mixed in an ounce of warmed olive oil to be used as drops for ear infections?

What is your favorite use of garlic?