Elephant Garlic - A Consolation To My Cancelled Travel Plans

This weekend I was supposed to be travelling interstate to visit my Auntie and help celebrate her 60th Birthday. My younger brother and I had arranged to drive over together which would make the 9 hour trip more manageable and pleasant (not to mention cost-effective)for the both of us.

We were to be leaving around 5am Yesterday (Friday) so that we could take plenty of rest breaks along the way (we both have bad backs which make long-distance travel somewhat uncomfortable, to say the least) and still arrive before sundown as it was my responsibility to coordinate decorating the venue prior to the lunchtime celebrations scheduled for today (Saturday).

I had my alarm set for 3.30am yesterday as the drive from my place to my brother's was approximately 45 minutes so I needed that time to get up, put last of my stuff in the car and arrive at his place ready to leave by 5 am. I woke up to the alarm at 3.30am, turned it off and was about to get up but felt so bad I lay my head back on the pillow. My eyes opened again half an hour later at which point I could no longer deny that I was sick. I felt dreadful, not only physically but emotionally as I was really lookingforward to spending this time with my family and I felt bad for having to leave my brother to travel alone at such short notice.

So I called him and explained how I felt and how sorry I was, but also that if he still wanted me to come then I would make the effort to drag myself out of bed and get to his place ASAP but then he would be stuck in the car with me and all my germs for the next 9 hours and would probably end up catching whatever was making me feel so dreadful. Bottom line was that he didn't want to get sick, no one else would want to get sick and if I did go, I would be miserable most of the time, in pain, uncomfortable and would probably miss most of the celebrations from being stuck in bed in my hotel room most of the time.

So I bit the bullet and pulled out of the trip. I was upset, disappointed and miserable about the whole situation.

So I made a sandwich.

It had egg, cheese, alfalfa and elephant garlic fresh from the garden. I was no more than halfway through my sandwich when I realised my head felt clearer. I know that eating raw garlic can have that effect but I've never been able to handle the flavour too well without it being cooked. Elephant garlic has been known to be a bit more gentle on the pallet than regular garlic and I had sliced the green leaves very finely to put on my sandwich. All of yesterday I pretty much just ate these sandwiches but each time I put more and more fresh elephant garlic on them.

Last night at around 2am I woke up sweating so much that I changed my clothes and when I woke up this morning my joints had stopped aching and I wasn't coughing as bad as I was yesterday. I was still very much sick but it seems that in 1 night I had managed to progress through the stages of being sick in what would have normally taken at least 3-5 days. All I can put it down to is eating the raw elephant garlic as I had not done this during any previous time I had been sick. I have always upped my garlic intake when sick, but it was always cooked.

So I did some reading on the internet about the health benefits of elephant garlic and discovered it is not actually a true garlic but falls under the onion genus and is a variant of the garden leek, hence the mild flavour and suitability for eating the fresh green leaves.

On the topic of nutrition, it has many of the same benefits of regular garlic such as the chemical compound "allicin" which has been proven to have antibacterial and antioxidant properties and there are also many studies which have been done that show it's ability to suppress or inhibit cancer cell growth. The potent antibacterial and antiviral agents found in elephant garlic (thanks to flavonoids, minerals, proteins, essential vitamins etc) are exactly what I need to keep on the fast recovery track.

I have added some links below for further reading about Elephant garlic and to show where I have sourced my own information from.

https://www.garlicaustralia.asn.au/article/elephant-garlic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_garlic

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3874095/

http://wellitude.com/elephant-garlic/

I feel extremely fortunate to have this growing so abundantly in my own garden, here's a picture I took today using my Samsung Galaxy S9 that shows a small patch of the garden where the garlic grows in amongst our parsley and potatoes.

So I may not have been able to go on my trip this weekend but I'm sure I will be healthy enough to return to work next week and avoid taking time off, losing wages, etc (which is normally the other downside to being sick).

Thanks for reading.

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