The Smell of Garlic

Today i gave a talk on using garlic from your garden, specifically garlic scapes. Using a bag full of scapes, my food processor, and olive oil, the four of us made garlic scape pesto in a jiffy. We scooped it into containers. Everyone went home with a half-pint of plain garlic scape pesto, and the public space we were meeting in smelled deliciously of garlic.

Most of us learn best experientially, though of course, sometimes it takes many "experiences" for us to finally learn our lesson. (Ahem!)

The path of mindfulness is an experiential path. Of course, we can use our intellect to guide us and to understand our experience, but mindfulness happens through the body, even though it's called "mind"fulness.

Aware of the body, we breathe and smell the delicious aroma of garlic scape pesto.

Garlic Turkey Broth

Garlic Scape Pesto

I have a cold, so i'm eating garlic, lots of it, every day. Last night's dinner was a quart of turkey bone broth with a half-pint of garlic scape pesto. It's strong. I'm hoping the bone broth makes my own bones strong.

Garlic is a strong taste, somewhat unpleasant. Yet, the thought of garlic is pleasant, since I trust the healing powers of garlic.

Pleasant. Unpleasant. These feelings, these impressions simply arise and pass away. The rest is story.

Garlic for Colds

Garlic Scapes

My home remedy for colds is to eat a lot of garlic. Sometimes i dice up the cloves. If the clove is small, i swallow it whole, like a pill. I really do believe garlic shortens the life of a cold.

Although i have plenty of garlic heads stored in the basement, this cold has knocked the energy out of me. It is much easier to grab some garlic scape pesto from the freezer. When i say "pesto," i mean a "paste" made with olive oil. Garlic scape pesto is simply garlic scapes that i ran through the food processor last June with enough olive oil added to make it a paste.

I froze 2 quarts of the stuff in half-pint containers. Today i'm using one batch to make pesto pasta. Straight garlic that is way too strong for my sweetie, but I think i could acquire a taste for it. It's probably a good thing i'm not seeing anyone today, not even my morning meditation group.

Buddhist teachings sometimes come across as strong medicine. Medicine that is counter-intuitive, or that we don't want to take because it "tastes" bad.

Dr. Buddha diagnoses our existential dis-ease with the First Noble Truth:
"Stress exists."
He tells us the etiology of our dis-ease with the Second Noble Truth:
"Craving"
He gives us the prognosis for our dis-ease with the Third Noble Truth:
"Cessation" of craving
And he prescribes the remedy for our dis-ease with the Fourth Noble Truth:
"The 8-fold Noble Path"

We may not like the sound of this diagnosis and prescription. Hey, i don't like the sound of my cold. But i'll do what's good for me.

Photos from purplemaizefarm.blogspot.com and kalynskitchen.com

How Much is Too Much?

Now that the change of season is well and truly here, i'm focusing on eating garlic--a lot of it--every day. My belief is that "A head of garlic a day keeps the colds away."

The freezer has several half-pint containers of garlic scape pesto AND i have 106 heads of garlic to eat in the next 90 days, before the garlic harvest comes in mid-July.

How much is too much?

Okay, i admit it. I have too much garlic, but can you imagine someone saying, "I have too much money"?

Generosity comes from realizing we have enough for our own basic requirements. We can share our excess.

On the other hand, i could "treat myself," and spend all my garlic on the most deserving person i know: Me.

Photo from beacholiveoils.com
Photo from profitableplants.com