Garlic Buds

Cyclops · Aug 12, 2007

Never seen them outside a bad old Hammer movie.
How pungent are they? What if you break one in half? is it worse?

Have you ever taken a bite out of one?

If you poke a needle and thread thru them and hang then up from the ceiling, do they stink up the room?

How common are full garlic buds in grocery stores? Can you get them in winter?

joyce · Aug 12, 2007

First of all you know garlic grows underground like an onion, with grass like leaves on top. If you smashed one open it would be more pungent than just left in the whole state. Since I love garlic I might not notice the smell, but I do not think they would smell up a whole room if you strung them up. I'm not a vampire so they would not bother me. I would just want to start cooking something up and put garlic in it.

Ol' Fashioned Girl · Aug 12, 2007

After garlic 'heads out' it gets clusters of tiny 'beads' on top with the garlic bulbs being underground. Yes, they're strong... they would stink up a room. I've never seen the top bud sold, but garlic cloves are available all year round.

Oberon · Aug 12, 2007

I once had a terrible toothache on a Sunday night, tried everything to ease the pain, and nothing worked. My wife said, try garlic. I put a cut garlic clove on my gum and it burned like hell, such pain as to put the tooth to shame. My wife then called the dentist and he agreed to come down to the office. He had to work through a miasma of garlic odor, but he was good about it. Garlic and other onions are part of the lily family, which includes some pretty poisonous plants.

Ol' Fashioned Girl · Aug 12, 2007

IIRC, garlic used to be used as an antiseptic.

CatSlave · Aug 12, 2007

Garlic is 'Russian penicillin' and highly regarded as a cholesterol-buster and is extremely healthy for you. You would do well to fall in love with garlic.

Horseshoes · Aug 12, 2007

If by buds, you mean the scapes' flower head, they are not as pungeant as the bulb/head of garlic cloves that is commonly seen in stores.

I've eaten scapes and the unopened flower heads. Tasty. Breaking them releases more aroma than leaving them whole, but again, not as strong as the true bulb.

Ravenlocks · Aug 12, 2007

I'm not sure what part is the bud, but I regularly see whole garlic bulbs in the grocery store. When you disassemble them and take out the cloves, they don't really smell all that strong, as I recall. But they taste pretty strong if you bite into a raw clove, which I have done (it's a Russian home remedy if you're catching a cold; you eat the whole raw clove, chasing each bite with a bite of black bread).

TheIT · Aug 12, 2007

I live near Gilroy, California, the "Garlic Capital of the World". Every year they hold a garlic festival. You can smell the scent for miles around.

Pomegranate · Aug 13, 2007

Garlic isn't really a "bud" it's a "bulb". Superficially, they look similar to what you plant to grow tulips. They grow in the ground. Above ground you see thin spiky green leaves about a foot tall and round purple blooms made up of many tiny florets. Even the stuff above ground smells garlicky.

I once bought a braided string of about 6-7 garlic bulbs, thinking it would be pretty in my kitchen. OOF! It stunk up the whole house. It is stronger when you cut it open because more of the volatile oil is exposed to the air. Fresh garlic is sharp and bitter tasting. (roasted it becomes nutty and smoother tasting).

I can easily find whole bulbs of fresh garlic in the grocery store. Look near the onions.

JoniBGoode · Aug 13, 2007

Garlic bulbs break into sections called cloves. Each clove is encased in a skin. They don't get really, really pungent until you peel them. I LOVE garlic and I can't imagine biting into one.

Garlic bulbs keep very well in a cool, dry spot (not the refrigerator) and have been available year round in grocery stores since at least the 1950s.

They don't really break in half -- the sections come apart. Honestly, this is a good topic for some hands-on research. Just go to the store and buy one.

Cyclops · Aug 14, 2007

OK, Thanks guys!
BTW, my story has NOTHING to do with vampires!
But I have enough to start writing this segment and I will go to the store and experiment.

I'm just a single guy with a micro and I never encountered raw garlic before.

Garlic Buds

Cyclops

joyce

I'm really shy...

Ol' Fashioned Girl

Hand? What hand?

Oberon

Ol' Fashioned Girl

Hand? What hand?

CatSlave

Mah tale iz draggin.

Horseshoes

lisapreston.com

Ravenlocks

How novel.

TheIT

Infuriatingly Theoretical

Pomegranate

JoniBGoode

Cyclops