Originating in western Asia, garlic's use as food and medicine dates
back to the Babylonians of 4,500 years ago. In ancient Egypt, garlic
was even used as a medium of exchange. According to author Lloyd
Harris in "The Book of Garlic," 15 pounds of garlic could buy a healthy
male slave.
Playing off of garlic's medicinal powers, the Egyptians even used it as
a predictor of a woman's fertility (we won't go into the details here,
however), . The Egyptian people came to worship garlic as a sort of
god, believing that it could cure disease.
Other ancient peoples, such as the Israelites, Palestinians and Greeks,
also revered the garlic and incorporated it into their daily lives. But
for as many cultures that have worshipped garlic, there are just as many
that have despised it. Because it became known as a "people's" food,
the upper classes-as well as the religious elite-began to view it as a
symbol of barbarism.
Ancient Indians of the higher classes-as opposed to the lower classes,
who treated garlic as valuable-shunned garlic. They believed that its
consumption would pull one away from spirituality, and that its smell
mean there were evil spirits hovering about. (Guess they didn't have
Certs back then.)
The British also showed incredible aversion to garlic in the 18th and
19th century. Percy Blythe Shelley, the British poet, wrote in a
latter dated around 1800 that "Young women of rank eat-you will never
guess what-garlic!" Oh, pish tosh!
Even the American colonists showed a revulsion for the herb, as
evidenced by a 17th century American named John Evelyn who wrote that
one should never add garlic to a salad "by reason of its intolerable
rankness."
Rank, shamnk. If you love garlic, you love garlic. Smell or no smell
(orderless garlic tablets seem to be all the rage right now), you're
gonna eat it.
"We eat garlic every day," said Vina Racho as she sorted through a crop
of garlic that had been harvested and was drying in the sun. She and
her husband, Tito, grow several acres' worth of the herb in Morro Bay
and sell their wares at farmers market in San Luis Obispo [County].
Vina, who came to this area from the Philippines about 17 years ago,
noted that in her native country, garlic is used as an antibiotic. In
fact, researchers have found that a substance in garlic called allicin
is responsible for garlic's healing powers.
Allicin is even sold in the former Soviet Union as an antibiotic and is
called Russian Penicillin. Though not as strong as penicillin, allicin
can be effective against certain germs.
Folk remedies included garlic recipes to combat arteriosclerosis,
seizures, cough, fever, even insomnia. But Tito may be the best
testament to garlic's health benefits. He's 98 years old and still
going strong.
"I've eaten garlic all my life," he said, sitting on a stool near one
of their fields and peeling some giant red onions. "I like to work."
And work he does. Along with garlic, the couple grows "a little bit of
everything," said Vina, like onions, peas, squash, tomatoes and
shallots. But garlic seems to be their passion. "They call me
'Garlic Lady,'" she said with a smile.
By the way, if you've never actually seen a garlic plant, it's really
something else. The garlic head (with all the plump cloves inside)
grows below the ground, and a tall stem-several feet high and topped
with a flower-sprouts above the ground.
"The flower you can sprinkle in your salad," said Vina, "or arrange in
your flower arrangements, too." And garlic itself will keep for about
a year, if stored in a cool, dry place (the fridge is a no-no).
You can grow garlic at home but you'd better have some patience. Plant
the cloves in October, explained Vina, and give them lots of water.
But when the bulbs begin to form, "too much water is bad for them," she
said, as they might begin to rot.
Then, twiddle your thumbs for a good, long time; it takes nine months
to grow garlic, said Vina, "just like a baby!"
But what a baby it is. What else can give such sensory delight and
keep vampires away at the same time?
* * * * * * * * * *
MORRO BAY - In Moscow, it's called chesnok, Italians call it aglio, and in Budapest
it's foghagyma. But garlic, by any other name, would smell
as...stinky. Yes, its smell is sweet to many a garlic lover. But
alas, the stinking rose has a checkered past, loved and hated, revered
and reviled.
"In the morning, we make fried rice with garlic," she added. "We
slice it, stir fry a little bit with olive oil, and then put in some
cooked rice. ... We also put some ham or eggs in."
San Luis Obispo County Telegram Tribune
Friday, September 29, 1995
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