When herbalist Laura Torraco of Amherst broke her tooth, exposing a nerve, raw garlic not only numbed the pain for hours, but also likely saved her from getting a bacterial infection, she says.
That’s because, among its many virtues, she says, garlic is anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, cleansing.
Add to that its purported immune-boosting and cholesterol-lowering properties, and garlic is both a culinary and medicinal “superfood,” says Deb Habib, co-founder of Seeds of Solidarity farm, a solar-powered, no-till farm in Orange which grows lots of it.
“Basically what we do is we try to encourage people to grow their own garlic for health and resilience, and of course deliciousness,” Habib said one day recently as she worked to get ready for last weekend’s North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival at Forster’s Farm in Orange. The two-day event has become an annual celebration of the stinky vegetable.
Garlic contains vitamins C and B6, manganese, selenium and other antioxidants. It also produces the sulfur compound allicin — an amino acid, said to be most responsible for garlic’s health benefits. While not present in fresh garlic, allicin is formed instantly when cloves are crushed, chewed, or cut.
As Habib braided garlic in strands for the festival, Torraco and Chris Bonneau, both employees at the farm, worked alongside her, as did Ricky Baruc, her husband and Seeds of Solidarity co-founder.
At the festival Seeds of Solidarity offered 16 varieties of seed garlic, geared toward the home gardener.
Garlic’s medicinal power often gets overlooked, says Torraco. Its benefits, she says, also include increasing sexual vigor and enhancing well-being during the cold months.
“My personal experience with garlic is it has been helpful, especially in the winter,” she said. “In the cold time, it’s a warming food. Adding that fire to you in the dead of winter is kind of nice.”
In addition to its health benefits, Habib says, garlic’s hardiness in the garden is also important. With drought conditions across the state and worldwide climate change, crops like garlic are needed for a shifting landscape as they can survive harsh conditions.
“It requires a lot less water than the majority of the crops we grow in the region,” Bonneau said. “The amount of water use is also a huge factor in what we should be aware of with climate change.”
Habib added that garlic, which is planted in the fall and harvested mid-summer, is a crop that can extend the growing season for home gardeners.
“One of the cool things about it is you think in New England gardening only happens in the summer, and it doesn’t — garlic is proof of that,” she said.
To grow garlic, break up the bulb into cloves while keeping the papery layer on. Plant the cloves in soil about six inches apart and three inches deep with the pointed end up. Then, lay down mulch hay and leave it for the winter.
In the spring, garlic sprouts will start to poke up through the mulch, which can be snipped and eaten. The plant will send up a garlic scape — the curly, green part of the plant — which should be cut off in late June to send the energy down into the bulb, which will thicken.
Habib said the scapes taste like garlic and can be eaten, too. She suggests making scape pesto, adding scapes to a stir fry or blending them to make garlic bread. Garlic is generally ready to harvest by the end of July. It can be hung out of the sun in a dry place to cure, which brings out the flavor more and enables it to be stored, or it can be used right away as green garlic, which has a milder flavor.
“I think in some ways, the most delicious way to enjoy garlic is to just roast it with some olive oil,” Habib said. “Just getting back to simplicity — roast it at 350 degrees in the oven until it’s tender and then squeeze it out of its paper wrapper onto some really good bread with some local cheese and some fresh tomato. That’s all you need, you could live on that.”
4 to 5 potatoes, red or white
1 sweet potato
1 cup cubed butternut squash
1 bulb garlic
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon rosemary
½ teaspoon salt and pepper
Wash, cut and slice or dice all vegetables into bite-sized pieces. Separate garlic bulb into cloves, leaving skins on. Toss all with olive oil and seasonings and place in a casserole dish. Bake covered at 350 degrees for about an hour or until vegetables are tender. This can be a meal in itself, or served with roasted chicken.