Much more than 15 minutes of fame

Garlic

Given Name: Allium sativum

Nicknames: Russian penicillin, natural antibiotic, vegetable viagra, plant talisman, rustic's theriac, snake grass, rank rose

Well, hello my adoring fans!

I'd like to take a moment to thank all the little people who have made my superstardom possible. I wouldn't have made it out of my home in Middle Asia without you. You transported me with you because you believed in my potential as food and medicine. Of course there are haters out there who think that I'm too strong and pungent and even people who are afraid of me (I'm so important, people named it: alliumphobia).

But 7000 years of history (yup, you read correctly: 7 thousand!) has shown that my popularity is enduring: from the Ancient Egyptians who buried me with their Pharaohs (my bulbs were found with king Tut!) and fed me to their slaves; to the Olympic athletes in Greece who used me as a “performance enhancing drug”; to recent studies that show I protect against the common cold.

I even got good reviews in the Bible and the Talmud. In fact, I would need pages to describe the oodles of uses people have found for me throughout history. So let's just agree that I'm pretty darn great.

Alexander the Great? Pfff! He's nothing compared to Garlic the Great!

And you probably don't even know everything there is to love about me...

...yet!

That's right, this celebrity is about to give you the lowdown on some intimate and juicy details of my private life.

Sure, everyone is used to seeing my bulbs. They appear in grocery stores and farmers markets all around the world. But I am more than my bulbs. Although people plant one million hectares of me each year, producing 10 million metric tons of my bulbs globally, did you ever wonder what would happen if you didn't pull me up?

Surprise, surprise- I'm a perennial!

Okay, so what? You're probably thinking that you have to pull me up for my tasty bulbs anyway so it doesn't matter.

But here's the big reveal: my scapes (curling flowering stalks) and leaves are edible too. I'm not saying don't eat my bulbs- I wouldn't want to deprive you of that pleasure. I just want you to know that if you plant one of my cloves in a sunny patch, I will multiply each year until you have a healthy clump of leafy green garlic! That way you can make pesto and stir fries with my scapes in July and pick my leaves throughout the summer like chives.

Oh, don't get me started with that purple-flowered, onion diva. That plant has been bragging ever since early 800 CE when Charlemagne, King of the Franks, included it in his list of plants to be grown on royal estates. Well I've got news for you, chives: 89 other plants, including me, made that list so simmer down, you garden prima donna!

Real fame is when you've been worn around a person's neck to ward off influenza (North America in 1917-1918) or had a book written all about you (quit hogging the spotlight Dracula- everyone knows I was the star!).

And just like in Bram Stoker's Dracula, in reality I repel pests. You may not be worried about vampires eating your tomatoes (or maybe you are, I'm not here to judge!) but there are certainly plenty of bugs that are kept at bay by my distinctively onion family smell.

In case you were wondering, this insider scoop is not a publicity stunt. Do you think I need more publicity? Ha! I'm just the sort of influential individual that likes to give back to my supporters.

You're welcome!

Grandiose Garlic

References:

Capitularies of Charlemagne (n.d.). Nightengale Garden Company Ltd. https://www.gardenvisit.com/history_theory/garden_landscape_design_articles/europe/capitulary_of_charlemagne

Petrovska, B. B., & Cekovska, S. (2010). Extracts from the history and medical properties of garlic. Pharmacognosy reviews, 4(7), 106–110. https://doi.org/10.4103/0973-7847.65321

Richard S. Rivlin, Historical Perspective on the Use of Garlic, The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 131, Issue 3, March 2001, Pages 951S–954S, https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/131.3.951S

Simon, P.W. (2020, March 3). The Origins and Distributions of Garlic: How many garlics are there?. USDA. https://www.ars.usda.gov/midwest-area/madison-wi/vegetable-crops-research/docs/simon-garlic-origins/

Small, E. (2013). North American Cornucopia: Top 100 Indigenous Food Plants. Boca Raton: CRC Press. Available online: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/north-american-cornucopia-ernest-small/10.1201/b15818

Trinklein, D (2015, September 1). Garlic: A brief history. University of Missouri. https://ipm.missouri.edu/meg/2015/9/garlic-a-brief-history/