Wet (Green) Garlic

Old gardening wisdom says that you should plant garlic on the shortest day and harvest it on the longest. So, I have an abundance of wet garlic to sell in STORES at the moment. Wet, or green, garlic is freshly harvested garlic that hasn't been hung up to dry. It's milder in taste and less pungent in odour than the usual kind and so can be sliced straight into salads.

To be honest, I'm a bit of a garlic fanatic and will eat it raw anyway. I love to crush garlic into my vinaigrette and slaver my greens in it.

In the garden my garlic and onion bed this year makes me really happy.  Not only have I got good sized onions and loads of garlic, but I've allowed the poppies to grow as weeds between the alliums and it looks gorgeous.

For thousands of years diverse cultures have believed garlic to have beneficial medicinal properties, modern science seems to be confirming this. Scientist believe that most of garlic's health benefits are caused by the sulphur compounds formed when a garlic clove is chopped, crushed or chewed. The best known of these is allicin, however this is an unstable compound only briefly present in fresh garlic after it has been cut.

Six Health Benefits of Garlic.

1.  Low in calories and rich in vitamin C, vitamin B6, manganese, selenium and decent amounts of calcium, copper, potassium, phosphorus, iron and vitamin B1

2.  Garlic has long been believed to help prevent and fight the common cold and flu.  Trials using garlic supplements suggest garlic boosts the function of the immune system and seem to support this.

3.  High doses of garlic appear to improve blood pressure for those with known hypertension. In some instances supplements may be as effective as regular medications.

4.  Garlic contains antioxidants that protect against cell damage and so it is believed has beneficial effects on Alzheimers, dementia and other chronic diseases.

5.  It appears garlic may have some benefits for bone health by increasing estrogen levels in females.

6.  Garlic supplements appear to reduce total and LDL cholesterol in those have high cholesterol. HDL cholesterol and triglycerides do not seem to be affected.