Celebrate National Garlic Day

Garlic shoots by Chris The Gardener.

With the garden still under 5 inches of snow and with my annual spring cold in full force, there's little for me to do except stay in my pajamas and look up bizarre facts on the web. Today's slice of random trivia: April 19 is National Garlic Day.

Now, apparently, no one is exactly certain why April 19 is always National Garlic Day. There have been no presidential proclamations to that effect, but here it stands, a day to celebrate all that is garlic.

Before we got snow, I noticed little green shoots coming up in the garlic bed. Never having grown garlic before, I'm assuming that is what they are and not, you know, weeds getting a head start on me this year.

I planted German Extra-Hardy (OG) last fall and gave it a good mulch before the ground froze. Garlic likes a neutral soil which can be hard to find in Maine and is extra hard to find when your garden lives partially in the shadow of giant cedar trees. It also likes full sun and moist soil. If you didn't get garlic in the ground last fall, never fear! You may still get respectable results from planting bulbs as early as you can in the spring. Just plant the individual cloves 5 inches in the ground and space them 5 or 6 inches apart.

The Heart of New England spoke with folks at MOFGA and have some great tips for growing garlic. They recommend adding a 1 inch layer of compost on top of the garlic to help keep it fertile and moist. When the leaves start to turn brown, it's time to pull up the bulbs and let them cure in a shady, well ventilated place for at least a week. All of the "growing garlic" literature says that garlic needs to be cured, but not a lot of folks say why. The best information I've been able to find says that "green" garlic has a bitter taste and to get maximum storage out of your bulbs, the curing process is necessary.

I'm pretty excited about the prospect of garlic scrapes. Scrapes are the flowering stalk of hardneck garlic, like the kind I'm growing. For maximum bulb size, the scrapes need to be trimmed when they start to curl and are apparently quite the gourmet treat. Stephen from Stephencooks is an amateur chef in southern Maine with a lovely suggestion for preparing this unusual green.

While you're dreaming of your future garlic harvest, I offer these fun facts to know and tell on April 19 - National Garlic Day:

• Garlic has been grown by humans for 5000 years.
• It is a member of the lily family.
• Alliumphobia is the fear of garlic.
• In North America folks eat 3 pounds of garlic per person, per year.
• In the Far East folks eat 50 pounds of garlic per person, per year.
• When the French joined a Soviet space mission in late 1986, their menus caused an international stir. The French would not go into space without garlic and apparently the ventilation system couldn't dispel the aromas quickly enough for the Soviet spacemen -- which led to some interesting diplomatic talks.
• Some horticulturalist believe that garlic was first domesticated in in the Kirgiz desert of southern Siberia.
• In the last century, Siberians were allowed to pay their taxes with garlic.
• There is a Muslim legend that says when Satan stepped out of Edan, garlic sprung up in his left footprint.
• To get the smell of garlic off your hands, scrub them with a mixture of salt and lemon juice (ouch! if you have cuts!) and then use soap and water.
• In 1858, Louis Pasteur noted the antiseptic properties of garlic.
• Dr. Arthur Stoll, a Nobel Prize winning chemist, discovered the compound Allicin which is believed to be the key player in garlic's antiseptic reputation.
• Garlic is one of the few truly global ingredients. Almost every culture uses it in cooking.
• Garlic has long been believed to ward off vampires, werewolves, demons and the evil eye.
• Gilroy California is the self proclaimed "Garlic Capital of the World" and holds an annual celebration to the "stinking rose" every summer. For folks on the east coast, Saugerties, New York also holds a two day garlic festival.
• The longest string of garlic is found in Catsfield, England and measures 123 feet.
• Someone with a lot of time on their hands apparently ran tests with bloodsucking leeches to see if garlic would repel them. It took an average of 44.9 seconds for leeches to attach themselves to hands devoid of garlic, but only an average of 14.9 seconds to find the hands that were covered in it. Makes you wonder about the vampire thing.
  
• Spanish bullfighters ward themselves from the horns of the bull by wearing a clove of garlic around their necks.

Now I'm off to cook up some garlic. Maybe it'll help me get over this cold.