June 2004 ARCHIVES of Andy's Life on
the Farm Shows
June 24th
The Garlic Cure
This is Andrew Griffin of Mariquita Farm with Life On The Farm. We
are now curing our garlic crop. Why cure something when it isn't sick,
especially garlic which is widely touted as a cure for everything from
vampire infestations to heart disease?
To cure means to heal. The word heal come to us from an Anglo-Saxon
word meaning whole. As our language developed it was natural for the
word curing, which comes to us from the Latin for caring, to eventually
become synonymous with preserving. Thus, even a ham is said to be cured
though its only illness was being the leg on a pig no longer preserved
whole. Curing a garlic is not nearly as violent as curing a pig.
When garlic plants begin to yellow and we observe that the bulbs are
quite swollen we stop watering the crop. Then we lift the bulbs and
break the dirt clods from the roots. We lay the garlic on the ground
in rows to finish drying. We are careful to shade the bulbs with the
leaves so they don't sunburn. The effect is like a thatched windrow.
As the garlic cures any residual sugars are drawn from the wilting leaves
into the cloves . When the papery husk forms we clip the bulbs from
the stalks. Garlic properly cured will keep until we need to make a
flavorful meal or ward off vampires. For a healthy vegan recipe that
calls for lots of fresh garlic check the Life On The Farm link at K.U.S.P.
dot org. For K.U.S.P. this is Andrew Griffin.
copyright 2004 Andrew Griffin
Roasted Garlic Hummus
2 cans garbanzo beans, or 4 cups cooked garbanzos (I use
a pressure cooker, and cook them for at least 45 minutes under high
pressure, with a split onion and a bay leaf....)
2 HEADS roasted garlic (wrap in foil two heads of garlic and roast when
you're baking something else, then they will be ready to use!)
1/4 cup tahini (sometimes I use 1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil instead)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil, or less if on fat-restricted diet
2 lemons, juiced, zest removed and chopped from one of the lemons
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped
water
In food processor* add cooked or canned beans, the pulp
from the roasted garlic cloves, tahini, salt, olive oil, zest from one
lemon, all lemon juice, and parsley. Whirl for quite a long time, until
it's very smooth. WHILE WHIRLING, add water a tablespoon at a time until
it looks perfect, I often use about 3-4 tablespoons, but it depends
on whether the beans were canned or cooked at home...
*A food processor generally has more power than a blender,
I've ruined more than one blender trying to make hummus! If you only
have a blender, add at least a 1/2 cup of water and maybe more, you'll
have smooth, almost runny hummus, but you'll still have your blender
intact.
-----
More about Mariquita
Farm: Website
More about Andy's
writings: Ladybug Letter Website
Andy's
Vegetable Photo Gallery: hundreds of vegetable and farming
photos
A-Z Vegetable
Recipes
|
