re: Boost Heart Health Naturally with This Common Kitchen Ingredient

jkwaso — 9/4/2024 8:08:27 AM

Our family loves garlic. If grown as a garden crop, it’s a health ally that keeps on giving. This year’s bulb harvest from our home garden was in the 400 range. Culinary purposes to ingest the potent properties is our main delivery system: crushed and rested 10 minutes and added toward the end of a recipe being cooked, chopped and sprinkled raw over salads, incorporated into softened butter, shaped and froze for quick use later, chopped and frozen in cube trays covered in organic quality EVOO or avocado oil, roasted and spread over toasted French bread, peeled cloves placed whole 2/3s full covered with raw unfiltered honey pursed and turned upside down for 2 weeks until the cloves sink; then let rest another 2-4 weeks before removing cloves for culinary use or eating out of the jar as a health powerhouse treat or when illness looms; the honey left in the jar is medicinal or can be made into marinades, dressings, etc.

(note: children under the age of 1 should NOT consume honey). Some folks make garlic oil as an ear ache remedy. Garlic truly is one of our strongest allies for maintaining health and one of the easiest low maintenance crops in the home garden.

Plant in the fall , forget about it (pretty much) and harvest 9-10 months later (mid July in Central WI) when the bottom 4 leaves die back and turn brown. Oh - garlic provides a bonus crop 2-3 weeks prior to harvest - garlic scapes! Scapes emerge from hard neck varieties of garlic as a solitary shoot from the top of the plant. Tender scapes should be harvested right when the shoot curls over at the top before it produces an open flower. Sauted, made into a garlicky pesto, or frozen in softened butter, scapes provide the delicious subtle flavor of garlic.