Valley Bounty: Garlic

Here we are, in the brave new world of 2017. With the surreal and acrimonious vestiges of 2016 still lingering, I’m sure many of us are excited for a chance to resolve ourselves to better habits and happier living. As far as New Year’s resolutions go, ‘eat healthier’ is as vague as it is common. My approach this year is to break ‘eat healthier’ down into smaller, more manageable steps, the first of which for me is to eat more garlic.

Garlic has the advantages of being easy to find locally in the winter (at just about any winter farmers’ market), fairly inexpensive, easy to cook with, and delicious. Recent studies have also suggested that garlic may have beneficial impacts on blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and cancer risk. Aside from simply mincing garlic cloves and adding them to any savory dish, really, making roasted garlic at home is simple, smells great, and gives the garlic a more mellow sweetness than it typically has raw. Trim off the tip of the bulb to expose the tops of the cloves, drizzle in olive oil, wrap in foil, and roast at 400°F for around 40 minutes. Roasted garlic is a great addition to salad dressing or simply spread on meat, veggies, or even crackers.

Valley Bounty is written by Brian Snell of CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture)