There are a few ingredients a cook can’t live without. Mark Bittman of the New York Times offers up an excellent article regarding kitchen staples (Fresh Start for a New Year? Let's Begin in the Kitchen), featuring foods like real lemon juice, Parmesan cheese, and walnuts… but there’s one item I can’t imagine ever cooking without – garlic, the little bulb that can do anything!

I’m not the only one – garlic has been gracing kitchens since the dawn of time.

Illustration courtesy Chuck Groenink 

Egyptians swore on garlic in the same way we swear on the Bible, and equated fifteen pounds of the stuff to the worth of one male slave. The Greeks recognized its virtue in treating heart problems, wounds, cancer, leprosy, and digestive problems. Athletes downed cloves before competition, and soldiers chewed up garlic before going into battle. The ancient Greeks weren’t the only ones who believed in the healing powers of garlic – before the discovery of penicillin (in 1928, by Alexander Fleming), it was the antibiotic of choice.

The arc of garlic’s myth extends into modern culture. Garlic has actually been investigated in a number of scientific studies, and shown to be effective in treating cholesterol, colds and flu, heart disease, cancer, and problems with the liver and gallbladder.

Personally, whenever I start to feel a cold coming on, I usually make myself a tea of raw garlic, ginger, lemon, and honey (and perhaps a shot or two of brandy if I'm feeling really low). I’ve tried eating whole cloves before, but I’ve found that too much of a good thing can cause a stomach ache and really foul breath. Wikipedia backs me up and states, “if an extremely large amount of garlic has been consumed, the person’s mucus, dandruff, and even earwax will also smell like garlic.” Not a good way to win friends and influence people.

It’s a good idea to talk to your doctor before eating copious amounts of garlic if you’re on hypoglycemic, antihypertensive, or antiplatelet drugs. And don’t share it with your furry friends – both garlic and onions can be toxic to cats and dogs.  

Our miracle plant, Allium sativum, is housed in the same botanical family as onions, shallots, leeks, and chives. There are a few different types of garlic, as well. Garlic grows naturally in a number of wild places, and there are a couple of weedier varieties of the plant – Allium vineale is wild or crow garlic, and Allium canadense is known as meadow garlic. However, elephant garlic – known for its giant cloves, is actually a wild leek (Allium ampeloprasum).

According to the UMN Extension site, Growing Garlic in Minnesota, you can grow garlic by planting in the fall, usually the first weeks of October (unless you're in northern Minnesota, where you should plant in the last weeks of September). The plants usually aren’t bothered by pests or diseases. It couldn’t be easier to grow it, either. Simply buy a head of garlic (I suggest an organic one, for obvious reasons), and divide it. Plant each clove in moist soil that gets plenty of sun, then wait until the top leaves start to brown and die away. Dig up your garlic, and dry it for about a week in a cool, dry place. Then you can use a clove from the new bulb to start all over again! Garlic is a great companion plant, and because it’s so disease resistant and doesn’t take up much space, you can plant it near pretty much anything in your garden.

When the garlic’s been harvested, you can add it to just about everything, or get a little creative with it – some of the more interesting garlic-based recipes I’ve seen include chocolate-covered garlic, garlic honey ice cream, and pineapple-garlic upside down cake. I may consider myself to be somewhat unconventional, but I prefer my garlic in a savory dish, like the recipe below, which I like to serve with crusty bread.

Garlic Goat Cheese Spread

1 bulb of garlic
½ cup goat cheese (about two of the logs you’ll buy in the store)
1/8 cup Parmesan cheese
1/8 cup shredded basil leaves
1/8 cup pine nuts (or walnuts, if you prefer)
1/8 cup chopped green olives

Roast the garlic on aluminum foil in a 350 degree oven for about an hour. Allow it to cool, then remove the cloves from the skin. Mash the garlic, then mix with the other ingredients. Place everything in an oven-safe dish, then put it back in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the cheese is soft and warmed through.  

Sources:
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/garlic
http://www.garlic-central.com/garlic-growing.html