Anti-vampire, anyone?
Garlic
Garlic grows in the wild throughout North America—you might even find it growing in your own
backyard! The stalk, which is usually about three feet tall, shoots up from a tiny, buried bulb that resembles an onion. There are long, narrow leaves and a cluster of tiny pink or white flowers. Flowers are seen in late spring.
Caution: Both garlic and onion are members of the Lily family, which contains some poisonous plants that might resemble field garlic or field onion. There's a simple way to be sure you are pulling up a field garlic or onion and not a lily—the smell. Onions and garlic have a very distinctive smell, while the lilies do not smell at all. As long as what you've got in your hand smells like garlic or onion, it's o.k.
We recommend that you content yourself with commercial garlic, shown here. Baked
garlic is much less intense in flavor than raw garlic. Nonetheless, garlic is most beneficial when
eaten raw! One clove a day is recommended. The alliin in garlic
acts as an antibiotic and can be used to treat wasp and bee stings—crushed wild garlic roots
can be applied directly to the sting. Garlic is thought to purify the blood by removing various
toxic metals, including lead, copper, and mercury. It is even effective against headaches!
Pine medicine | Mint medicine
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