Homegrown Garlic

Yes, I am very new to this blogging thing. I am sure that years from now, when I am a successful blogger, I will look back at my first blog and say, "What were you thinking?" But right now, I feel it is very important to discuss the simple pleasure of garlic.

Once used to scare away vampires and scorpions, to treat infections and dog bites, this staple from the onion family swept me off my feet today. To fully understand, we need to go back in time a bit. Last summer, while shopping for my latest order, I picked up one of those 5-garlic-in-a-net things. At the end of the summer, with a full garlic left over, (and having heard roomers at the farmer's market of how easy it is to grow) I planted the garlic cloves on the southern edge of my garden. This spring, sometime around April, a strange thing happened. I forgot that I planted garlic, and these tall thin shoots popped up, even before my crocuses and daffodils. It wasn't very long before I realized what they were, and quickly congratulated myself on being so efficient.

So, the garlic grew along side my freshly planted seedlings for some time before they developed these very alien beak-like tips, that after a few more weeks, burst into orbs that must replicate another planet somewhere. They were beautiful with pinkish color, softly scented like garlic, but unlike anything I had seen before. I then went online to see what in the world they were, and, is this normal? Some sites said to chop it, others said to fry it, I decided to leave it alone. To me, it was like a rose in my vegetable garden.

Earlier this week, I noticed that several of my garlic orbs had started to wither. Many of the stems had turned brown. I then read online that it is OK to dig up the garlic at this point. So I did. How amazing it is to see how it had grown, beneath the soil, through the harsh and cold winter, and unbeknownst to me, the wost garlic farmer east of the Mississippi! (My sister would be the worst garlic farmer west of the Mississippi.) I washed off their octopus roots, trimmed the stem, and set them on a plate in the sun to dry out. They were so clean and white.

This brings me to tonight. My husband wanted spaghetti for dinner. In a pot I started to saute some onion, and decided to add some of my garlic. After a few seconds, my husband said that our house smelled delicious. I told him it was only onion and garlic. But it wasn't. Something was happening. My husband and I just could not get enough of the smell. Like children we fought to take a whiff of the pot. It smelled like garlic, but sweeter and with wine, and with all the flavors of love that I did not have on hand to add. I added the ground beef, the tomatoes, that fresh basil, fresh oregano, and fresh rosemary. A little more of this and not much more of that. When it was done, and when we had had our fill, we took one look at each other and knew, it was the garlic.

So, my friends, the lesson here is to take the time to plant some garlic. Who knows? You might need to ward off a vampire, or need to heal a very nasty dog bite. Or, just maybe, you are looking for that simple secret ingredient. Fresh garlic tastes a lot like love.