This Relative Of The Onion Could Be Considered “The Broke Man’s Natural Healer” – Part 2
by Shelley Wade
In part one of my post about “The Broke Man’s Natural Healer”, I discussed the many health benefits of garlic. You can view Part 1 right here. Below, I will give you a multitude of ways to incorporate garlic into your life – both in the kitchen and in the garden!
Here are a few clever ways to get Garlic to work for you:
- Mince up 1-2 cloves, letting it sit for about 10 minutes. Then add to water and chase it down. Or you may put the garlic on a spoon and cover the top with honey. As they say a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.
- To minimize garlic breath try chewing on some cilantro or parsley, plus chewing these herbs has many other health benefits*
- In extreme cases of sickness (like the flu).
- *I slice lengthwise in half several garlic cloves, put them into a bowl and set aside.
- Slice up an onion where you can use the rings and put them into a bowl as well.
- Grab some saran wrap and a pair of socks set them by you to have handy.
- First I rub a mixture of coconut and olive oil (using just one of the two is also fine) onto the sick person’s feet.
- Then put on a mix of the onion and garlic on the bottoms of their feet.
- Wrap their feet with saran wrap followed by covering them with socks.
- Let them sleep with that over night, and it works wonders.
- I have heard some natural practitioners state that having cut onions around will absorb toxins and keep others in the family from getting sick, but I haven’t tried this yet.
- Also another option is to get pickled garlic from places like Walmart or the Dollar tree. This is an excellent option if you can not stand the taste of garlic as it tasting like sweet dill pickles. Word of warning they can disappear rather quickly if you are not paying attention.
Cooking with it in the kitchen is amazing. Since learning of its plentiful benefits I always add a bit extra garlic. Some swear I am trying to ward off vampires at times. Here is my personal recipe for garlic herb butter.
Garlic Herb Butter
- 4 tablespoon of butter (I use grass fed Kerry Gold)
- 1 minced clove of garlic
- 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh(or dried) herbs of your choice
- Sprinkle of salt
Leave the butter out to soften for a little while. After softening put in a bowl add the all of the other ingredients and mix well. (alternatively you can use a blender or food processor) You can use immediately or store in your fridge or freezer for later use.
Gardening:
The main way I use garlic is as a beneficial companion plant (with a few exceptions including peas and beans). Companion planting it with other crops can be a highly useful and effective pest management strategy. It helps deter air and soil-borne pests including leaf eaters, spider mites and fruit flies. In the future I will go into further detail on the many uses of garlic in the garden.
Just remember not only is garlic great for getting you over sickness, its amazing for preventing it in the first place. As they say a pound of prevention is better than an ounce of cure any day.
I wish you all well in you journey to be in amazing health. If you have some amazing way that you use garlic feel free to share it with the rest of us in the comment section below.
About Shelley Wade:
Shelley Wade is primarily a stay at home mom with a part time job of one day a week. Currently she is working on obtaining an Associates Degree from South West Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA), specializing in Holistic Nutrition and Urban Farming. An avid gardener since she learned to put her hands in the dirt, she was taught by her great grandfather many unique ways and tricks to get plants growing. With the health problems of herself and family, she has dipped into various forms of alternative healing from herbs, nutrition, energy work, to massage therapy. It is her dream to eventually open up a clinic where everyone can see a holistic practitioner regardless of income. Currently she lives in central Florida with her husband and energetic little toddler.
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