Garlic is one of those plants that packs a powerful punch, not just with its flavor, but with its health benefits as well. There are some varying kinds of garlic growing wild around the world, but I'm going to deal with the one that we have growing in the woods around here. Perhaps these plants are simply the leftovers of an ancient garden, but either way, there are here and we are being blessed by them.
When you see them growing in the woods or the field, the thing that usually catches your eye are the small clusters of baby garlic held high into the air by the long, thin stalk. As you can tell from the picture, the stalks are already starting to dry and droop.
The clusters themselves are beautiful to behold; a complex globe of tiny garlic cloves, awaiting their descent back to the ground so that they can begin their own plant the following year.
Just by rubbing these clusters, the tiny cloves quickly separate. We are always careful to be sure that the majority of these little guys get spread back in the area in which they were found. Since they were growing there already, the proper environment for their success exists in that spot. We will also take some and spread them a little farther out, or in a new area, to attempt the further spreading of this wonderful plant.
Earlier on this year, just pulling up on the stalk would often dislodge the entire bulb. I've seen wonderful braids of garlic down in Mexico before, so I attempted to recreate what I've seen in order to store some for winter use.
The project worked quite well and the garlic can now be hung in an attractive manner until we'll need it later this year. Also, check out the nice size of some of these bulbs. Not bad for finding them in the woods.
Now, though, the stems appear to be too far gone to pull up the bulb. When we try to lift them, they just pull out, leaving the bulbs still buried in the earth.
A little digging though is all that is needed to get these goodies out of the earth. They rinse very easily and most of the time, the little papery "wrappers" around the cloves come right off too. This makes them much easier to use than the "store-bought" garlic that we usually deal with. It's actually easier to run into the woods, locate, harvest, rinse, and clean some of these than it is just to peel the ones from the store.
Here is a picture of some uprooted plants. These ones had smaller bulbs on them. The circle in-between the bulbs on the right side is a US Quarter Dollar coin, commonly called a "Quarter", for size comparison. The benefits of garlic are many. If the presence of Vitamin C, Copper, Manganese, and Vitamin B6 wasn't enough, the antibacterial and anti-fungal properties of garlic are amazing. For a great, simple recipe on how to use garlic for its health benefits, click here.
Keep your eyes open when you're outdoors, you never know what you're going to find. It just might be edible.
THE EDIBLE OUTDOORS previous posts:
1-Common Yellow Wood Sorrel
2-Lamb’s Quarters
3-American Gooseberry
4-Stinging Nettle
5-Sassafras
6-Creeping Charlie
7-Dandelion
8-Plantain
9-Mint