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Thursdays
and Fridays at 7:49 am and 5:00pm Hosted by Andy Griffin of Mariquita Farm in Watsonville. |
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| This is Andrew Griffin of Mariquita Farm with Life On The Farm. When Satan stepped out of Eden to follow Adam and Eve into their exile garlic sprouted from the footprint of his left cloven hoof...or so goes one Muslim tradition.
In eastern Europe Christians nailed heads of garlic to their bedposts to ward off vampires. Ancestors ancient even to the Egyptians and Greeks of the classical era chewed garlic cloves to protect themselves from any demons they aroused as they collected herbs and greens in the forests. The number of varieties of garlic that exist today suggest we’ve cultivated esoteric notions about garlic for a long time because, even if the first bulbs sprang from the devil’s foot, garlics now can reproduce only with help from humans. Many types of garlic don’t flower, and even those that do set only sterile seeds. Farmers must plant cloves to create the next generation. Some garlics produce odd little bulblets called bulbils on their seed heads which can be planted in the same manner as the cloves. Either way, each new garlic plant that sprouts is a clone of its parent. There is no wild garlic - allium sativum, the plant’s scientific name, means the “cultivated” allium in botanical Latin. The many varieties of garlics enjoyed or abhorred across the world from Korea to California must have been patiently developed over a great length of time by propagating beneficial mutations that arise infrequently. For an unusual garlic recipe check the Life On The Farm link at K.U.S.P dot org. For K.U.S.P. this is 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....) 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 |
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