Medicinal Gourmet Cooking Collective: Medicinal Garlic - The Pickled Way
Ecotrain is hosting a Medicinal Gourmet Cooking Collective. There are lots of food, herbs and spices from different cultures used as medicine to improve health. As stated by @eco-alex, this challenge is a great opportunity to cook, learn, and experiment with some new ideas and share them in the spirit of good health. This challenge is open to everyone.
The first challenge will focus on the Fire Element or the Heart. This is my entry into this week's Medicinal Gourmet Cooking Collective.
Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food
Garlic is not just a kitchen staple, it has been used as a Traditional Chinese Medicine for a wide range of conditions for thousands of years. Garlic is one of the earliest known plants used in maintaining health and the treatment of various diseases. It is the most widely used natural remedy. Throughout Asia, garlic is considered both a food and a medicine . The characteristic of garlic is warm with a spicy taste.
Garlic is warming in nature and has an affinity toward the stomach and spleen, heart and small intestine, and the lungs and large intestine.
source
Even though garlic has been used as medicine for thousands of years, modern research in recent years has proven that garlic possess anti-septic, anti-bacterial and anti-microbial qualities, it also lowers blood cholesterol and protects the heart. Garlic is known to improve circulation, stimulate the production of white blood cells, and boost immune function. Researches have shown that when garlic is consumed regularly, it helps to protect healthy heart function and is effective in lowering unhealthy (LDL) cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
One Glove A Day Keeps the Doctors Away
Because of all the health benefits of consuming garlic, it is important to include garlic as part of a healthy lifestyle. Cooking garlic may render it a bit less potent, but most of the active compounds will still be active. For complete medicinal benefits of garlic, try eating it raw. However, personally, I don't like raw garlic, but I still want to get all the benefits of raw garlic. I will show you what we do to make sure we are getting as many of the medicinal properties of raw garlic in our daily lives.
Pickled Garlic
I learned to make raw pickled garlic from Rosemary Gladstar's Medicinal Herbs (highly recommend the book as a beginner's guide to medicinal herbs). It is my favorite "medicinal" recipe. Even though raw garlic is quite pungent to me , I like the taste of these pickled garlic and they have all the medicinal properties of raw, fresh garlic.
I make jars of pickled garlic with the organic garlic from my food forest. So far I have only jarred Music and Shantung garlic. This is the main reason I grow so much garlic even though there are only two of us in the household.
How To Make Pickled Garlic:
All you need are three ingredients: garlic, organic raw apple cider vinegar and raw local honey, or some real good honey that you wish was grown locally.
- Fill a wide-mouth glass jar with whole peeled garlic cloves. Add enough apple cider vinegar to completely cover the peeled garlic. Place the jar in a warm spot and let it sit for four weeks.
- Strain the liquid off. Set half of the drained apple cider vinegar aside. Save this liquid for salad dressings. Place the rest of the drained apple cider vinegar in a saucepan and add an equal amount of raw honey. Warm this mixture over really low heat, stirring until the honey is thoroughly mixed into the apple cider vinegar.
- Pour the mixture of apple cider vinegar and raw honey back over the garlic into the glass jar. Cap the jar and let it sit for another three or four weeks in a dark place. Store the finished jar of pickled garlic in a dark, cool place. It should keep for a year or longer.
Eat as many pickled garlic as you like every day. Eat 4 or 5 cloves if using it to treat cold or flu. It is delicious with a sweet and pungent flavor. These tasty pickled garlic have all the medicinal properties of raw fresh garlic. This is a great way to include raw garlic with all the benefits in your diet even if you don't like the flavor of raw garlic. People who sometimes get stomach issues from eating raw garlic can consume pickled garlic and have no, or many fewer problems.
We have been harvesting lots of heirloom tomatoes, so this is how we consume the raw pickled garlic recently. Tomato, basil and pickled garlic. Yummy and healthy!
love it! SO easy that I can do this really easily.. and luckily we have good organic Apple cider vinegar here.. im on it!
Thanks for the comment. I totally did not think about people in other countries. I will edit my post to say organic apple cider vinegar.
It is super easy to make. Just takes time to let it sit and do their thing. It's delicious and very good for you. We haven't had a sickness like flu or cold in so many years.
We now have a farang guy in Chiang Rai now making great organic apple cider - about 1/4 the price of the imported stuff and REALLY GOOD!
nice, local is always best.. we have the same here luckily.. there is one local shop that makes their own.. its organic, unpasteurised, and good! enjoy ;-)
This is too good. Sorry I missed this when it first came out. I do love pickled garlic and it's such a great way to use up excess produce too.
Awesome article from an amazing lady! I love garlic. I didn't realize you could pickle it! Great contribution to this new initiative from @ecotrain so I decided to give you an upvote from the ecotrain bot <3 xxx
Thank you so much @holisticmom! You are an awesome lady as always.
this is a great entry for the challenge @thelaundrylady, I love garlic but have never pickled it but I will now, thank you xxx
You will like the taste of these pickled garlic. Just make sure to wear gloves when peeling so many garlic. I learned my lesson. Garlic can burn your skin. Man, it was painful the first time.
What a great idea! I have not tried pickling garlic but I do know the health benefits are great. I'll have to try this one!! Thanks for the share, fantastic!
I never realized I can pickle garlic until I read this book. It's not only tasty, it is so good for you. We haven't been sick in years. I always eat 5 cloves a day about a week prior to traveling and it seems to do the trick. Give it a try and see what you think.
yes! thanks for sharing this fantastic recipe from the woman herself, R Gladstar (total fav)! i have made garlic infused acv and wowza, loved it!! haven't done the honey portion though and that i must try! i am a huge believer in the power of garlic, plus i just plain love it <3 thanks!
Yeah, I love Rosemary Gladstar. She is an amazing herbalist. The honey really mellows out the garlic and adds a little natural sweetness. Such a yummy way to eat garlic with all the benefits.
This is a great post thanks!!! totally going to try this and try and get my hands on a copy of that book. Keep up the great work!
You will love the book. I learned so much and started growing all kinds of medicinal herbs because of the book.
I will have to try this if i can ever find organic acv here. I might end up making my own. I love all the ways of garlic, and it is such a powerful healer. I made garlic/coconut oil drops for kids ear infections, and it works so well.
I love garlic and its healing super powers. I was going through topical steroid withdrawal and skin infection could be a major issue. I used organic apple cider vinegar or garlic in my bath water to prevent the infections. They work amazingly. So many people get infections who are going through what I have gone through and they are getting antibiotics instead from doctors. I tried to share my experience with people in the support group. Hopefully most will switch to the natural way to combat the problem.
Tell me more about the garlic/coconut oil drops you made for ear infections please!
Garlic in the bath water is an exceptional idea! Antibiotics are great when you need them, but they should always be a last resort.
The drops are so easy. Just put coconut oil in a dropper bottle and add crushed garlic. It's gold, though I'm now concerned it may be a fungal infection, which is something I never saw until moving here, but it's the tropics, and fungus is everywhere, so we may not be wanting to do oil, even coconut. I'm still trying to diagnose, but I may have to switch it up. This morning his ear wax was green, ewww!
We absolutely love this recipe and I learned it from the same awesome lady and book. My son even puts in requests for me to ship him jars . I feel like I should get a medal or something - 22 year old requesting garlic from his mom - big win right?
I have never heard of the Shantung variety. What a lovely name. I am an aspiring some day garlic market farmer and will have to check that one out.
also your photos are stunning. You are always so complimentary about mine but I have to tell you I really appreciate yours as well. They are always composed beautifully and convey such feeling.
Wow, you SHOULD totally get a metal for your 22 year old son to request jars of pickled garlic from his mom! Must have been really good :) . I am sure you will be an amazing garlic farmer one day when you are ready. Everything you do is wonderful.
Shandong garlic is our favorite variety. It does not keep as long as variety like Music. I usually harvest around early June and they will keep until December or January only. That's why I pickled most of them to eat for later.
Thank you for your kind words about my photos. I am so happy to connect with you on Steemit. I have learned a lot from your posts and have always enjoyed your beautiful photos and layouts. Look forward to more amazing photos and posts from you in the future. You are an inspirational homesteader!
Lovely post and nice to be following a fellow "food is medicine" ecotrain sister. Best from Thailand. :)
Hey there ecotrain sister @artemislives. You are lucky living in Thailand! You have so many different varieties of fresh fruit and veggies. So jealous :-)