GARLIC AND SOME OF ITS MANY USES

If you can wait through the Chrome Google Ad, watch this video on garlic in China today. Those of us who are well acquainted with good old USA Gilroy garlic, will have to watch what is done about it or to it. Hopefully Gilroy will remain a staple in most American homes as well as my own.

Written by Ray Sahellian, MD on garlic's use and effectiveness: "Garlic is a member of the same group of plants as the onion. The bulb is the part used for consuming or as medicine. Epidemiological as well as laboratory studies have shown that garlic and onion consumption reduces certain cancer incidences in the stomach, colon, mammary, cervical, and other sites. The use of garlic for medicinal purposes dates to antiquity. Garlic bulbs were found in tombs of the pharaohs, in Crete, and in ancient cultures throughout the world. Hippocrates considered garlic to be a vital part of his therapeutic armamentarium
In an analysis of eight studies from Italy and Switzerland, researchers found that older adults with the highest onion and garlic intakes had the lowest risks of a number of cancers -- including colon, ovarian and throat cancers. Garlic is also helpful in dilating blood vessels, has cardiovascular benefits, and may have anti germ potential."

Each year, Gilroy, CA, has a huge harvest festival. Check out some of the recipes. Raised on a Mediterranean diet, I can attest to the wonderful power of garlic lowering blood pressure and cooling off a person in heated temperatures. However, it does not simply require garlic flavoring, but usually a requirement to ingest pretty much of the whole head of garlic. I found its power when I ate a generous helping, several times, of Skordalia and couldn't figure out why my teeth were chattering when the temperature was in the 90's. There are more recipes for this sauce than words for snow in the Arctic, click here for an excellent example.

Years ago, my husband and I had two male friends who were both chocolate and garlic lovers and so I quite facetiously said, "Next time I have you over to dinner I will make chocolate covered garlic for you." Glancing through an Italian cookbook I found that it was already considered a delicacy in Italy. The shocker was that they covered the raw garlic with chocolate; so I tried it. I felt like someone had taken claws all the way down my esophagus to depths in my body that have never burned like that before (or ever again, I might add)! Undaunted, however, I put the peeled head of garlic cloves in the microwave just briefly enough to cook the knife edge out of them, leaving that Heavenly bouquet which was then dipped in chocolate and allowed to harden. When it was served at a dinner, it was as though someone had vacuumed it all up in an instant.

Will the Chinese take yet another treat away from me by raising prices high enough for me to want to fore go its use? As soon as something good comes along, someone else starts manipulating the prices excessively. That's shoots the theory about garlic protecting us. It seems we must protect the garlic!