My Garlic Adventures

 

Garlic bunches of 2017. Planted in 2016 with my friend Karen. 

In my own little green thumb world, a garlic growing guide in not needed. The plant will grow anywhere and my family have grown garlic for our own use and to share. 

I grew up in the Philippines, and our garlic were small and full of flavor. And every meal is cooked with : I meant every dish - from soups, to noddles to adobo. When we roast a whole pig, we kids in the family will peel lots and lots of garlic and put it inside the pig's belly among with other herbs. 

In 2001, I moved to Canada and I still grow my garlic from Farmers Market. I figure that if it grow back home, it will grow here for me too. There were many hit and miss experiments, and along comes learning. My background is in Earth Sciences and I am no stranger to digging data, experimenting, recording, measuring, analyzing and repeat until I get the desired result. I have access to laboratories, and along with my Nerdiness and thirst for knowledge, I have few nuggets to share. 

Currently, we are organic farmers of a 10 acre of the 200 acres  homestead farm that use to belong the Brennan's in the 1800s on 139 March Rd. We are growing mostly produce and vegetables and heirloom seeds.  Our farmer principle is rooted in land stewardship: to grow what we eat, protect and nourish the soil, give back nutrients,  reduce waste and community sharing and learning. 

Not so useless facts about Garlic: 

Cultivated in Mesopotamia (this area is now Iran)  about 4,000 years ago.

• 1325 found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, well preserve
• I find the illustration of a garlic from an old William Woodville, Medical Botany in 1793. 
• Ancient Medicinal Notes: Galen called garlic as cure-all
• Avecena: 1025 Canon of Medicine - treatment for illness such as athritis, chronic cough, antibiotic for infectious diseases
• Neckam: 12th century writer - palliative for heat and sun labor
• Sydenham : 17th century - confluent for small pox
• World War  1 (1914-18) and World War II (1939-1945) :  an antiseptic to prevent gangrene 

hardneck-purple stripe-Duganski

Garlic History: 

Curious about Garlic History and How it get here in North America? 

(3) Bob Anderson wrote about this as part of the Polish, German, Italian immigrants and a massive collection in 1989. 

Sources:  

1. John Boy Garlic - https://garlicseed.ca/pages/choosing-garlic-seed ( River Valley Manitoba)

2. Ontario Garlic Grower Association: https://www.garlicgrowersofontario.com/how-to-grow-garlic (St. Anns Ontario) 

3. The Garlic Family Tree and Where Garlic Come from? by Bob Anderson, an article from Boundary Garlic Farm in British Columbia

 https://www.garlicfarm.ca/garlic-history.htm

4.  Growing 101 - Ontario Garlic Grower Association