Good week!
I AM REMINDING YOU THAT DURING THE WEEK OF PASSOVER WE ARE ON VACATION AND WILL NOT SEND YOU BOXS.
Please take this into account when making your order for this week. We are of course here to help if you need.
Those that receive a box every two weeks – this will cause a 2 week interval between deliveries! If you wish to change this, please inform us by the day before your delivery at 12:00.
Our sprouts are famous! There is an adage about them in Globes :). They truly are a modest super-food and don’t get enough credit…here is a link to Roi's article in Globes.
Precisely during this season that nature is bursting with colors and smells, with the sounds of birds and insects, the people of Israel also bursted out of slavery. During their difficult walk to freedom they remembered a few things (Numbers, chapter 11, 5):
" We remember the fish, which we were wont to eat in Egypt for nought; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic;"
What is the garlic they refer to? This is a bigger question than you might think. "Garden garlic" is our regular familiar garlic.
"Tall garlic" is our leek, mentioned earlier in that sentence. And "garlic chives", which is our star for today, is another interesting form of garlic.
Garlic chives: Some fun things to know about it!
It is the sister of garlic and leek. All three belong to the same genus: Allium. The taste of the garlic chives is more delicate than the other two.
It is a perennial plant and a great success in our garden for the third year in a row.
It has a flat leaf like leeks and garlic, which is different from the onion chives that have tubular leaves such as the green onions.
Garlic Chives contain the healing properties of garlic, but because of the delicate taste and the fresh green leaves, its use is more versatile.
The Chinese have used it for about 3000 years and nowadays the Japanese use it. It is a common ingredient in sushi.
I cannot think of a food with which it does not go well… 🙂
It is told that Marco Polo brought garlic chives from China to Europe, but was acknowledged in Rome at the beginning of the first century.
The Gypsies would use it to foresee fortunes and tell the future.
Like the garlic, it is used to ward off evil and disease. This also has scientific explanations. Unlike the garlic it should not be hung outside the door but should be eaten immediately.
Dioscorides, a Greek doctor, pharmacist and botanist from Emperor Nero’s era (soon more about him and his connection to the family:)), wrote a book on botany and medicine that was still in use until a few centuries ago !! He wrote back then about garlic chives.
The mad Emperor Nero, emperor at the time of the Great Revolt, really wanted to be a singer.
He was known by his many scandals – He was born to a poor home and rose to be emperor. He employed 500 professional clappers that were a good audience for his performances. He watched the huge fire raging in Rome for a week while he was playing and singing on top of a mountain. He claimed that eating leek soup every morning cleared his voice. The software for burning discs called NERO is named after him.
Allicin is an organic compound that gives garlic and garlic chives their smell and their characteristic spiciness. This compound is what provides the family with effectiveness against parasites, infections and lowers blood pressure and cholesterol.
There is more good stuff in this family: sulfur which contains antibiotic qualities, phosphorus, potassium, a variety of vitamins and flavenoids which are known to be anticarcinogenic.
The family is known for its power of disinfection, for causing bodily cleansing through sweating, for improving gastric functioning, for strengthening the immune system, for improving the health of nails, teeth and skin, and more.
So – Eat garlic, especially garlic chives.
Have a fresh, happy and healthy week!
Have a happy holiday of freedom!
Yours,
Maggie and garden staff
You can expect overflowing Chag organic vegetable baskets with (draft only):
New Zealand spinach
Garlic Chives
Leeks
Potatoes
cabbage
lettuce
beets
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Purple kohlrabi
Peppers
In the larger organic vegetable baskets, also:
Radishes
Sweet Potatoes
Parsley
Carrots
Organic fruit baskets, expected:
Red Grapefruits
Bananas
oranges
Clementines
Larger ones also:
Sweeties
Melon
More different Clementines
