Garlic is a remarkably versatile ingredient. It can add flavor to your meals, and sometimes it's used medicinally.
One Reddit user shared how their extensive garlic garden haul could keep vampires away (in theory) and keep their kitchen smelling delicious (in practice).
The post in the 2.6 million-member r/homestead subreddit shows a truck bed filled with garlic sprouts. The user notes in the caption that they spent $30 on Red Russian garlic two years prior and planted all of it. Last year, they replanted half of the garlic haul, then harvested 400 heads of garlic in return. Next year, the user plans to harvest an astonishing 1,200 heads.
Growing your own produce has numerous environmental and monetary benefits, even if you're not harvesting hundreds of garlic heads. Home gardens are an easy way to bring the food system closer to the consumer. This means that your food has to travel fewer miles from where it is grown to where it is sold and then to where it is eventually eaten. Not only does this save money in transport and costs to the consumer, but it also decreases the amount of polluting carbon emissions released from the vehicles.
Gardening has some emotional and psychosocial benefits. Besides being a form of exercise and a way for people to connect with their food system, gardening has proved to decrease stress levels and provide a sense of community among gardeners. For example, sharing your garlic haul in exchange for zucchini or tomatoes is a way to build social capital and get all the ingredients you need for a healthy, vegetable-forward meal.
Users were impressed by how much garlic the homesteader was able to grow.
"Infinite garlic glitch???" one user asked.
"Your garlic pyramid scheme is coming along nicely. Well done!!!" another user said.
"This makes me super excited as I bought Red Russian to plant this year," a third wrote.
Join our free newsletter for easy tips to save more, waste less, and help yourself while helping the planet.
Cool Picks
