Garlic!

If I could only have one herb, it would be garlic! It's one of the most versatile herbs I can think of. It's great for cooking and has many medicinal uses. Reading about it, you find out that it's good for infections of all sorts, can help with cholesterol, good for the immune system, good for yeast infections, is antifungal and can help with fleas if you're a dog.

I don't have personal experience with all that, but we do use it quite a lot around here. We take it raw at the very first sign of a cold or flu and, 9 times out of 10, it knocks it flat. If we wait a day or two, it doesn't knock it down, but it does drastically shorten the duration of the illness. I generally take 2-3 cloves throughout the day, chopped fine and taken with water. I do have to take it with food or it can make my stomach upset. For the little ones, I chop it very fine and mix it with a spoonful of peanut butter. My husband likes to take it that way as well. I can't stand chewing raw garlic, though, so I just swallow mine. Garlic is one of the immune stimulants that won't incite a cytokine storm, those are what killed most people in the Flu of 1918-1919. Many popular immune stimulants/flu remedies will/can incite a cytokine storm. Plus garlic is easy to grow here and stores well.

I have also used it successfully for fungal infections. A little garlic oil on athlete's foot usually clears it right up. From personal experience it's also very helpful in yeast infections and is supposedly helpful in several other vaginal infections. I also put it into my general purpose 'wound/cut/scrape' ointment, along with several other herbs.

Garlic can also benefit the animals. I have used it successfully on turkeys, goats and dogs. I've had a couple of turkeys come down with some sort of disease that, for one reason or another, I wanted to save. Usually I just put them down, survival of the fittest kind of thing. Anyway, I have had very good luck with catching a turkey and shoving a clove of garlic down it's throat 2-3 times a day for as long as needed. They really don't like it, though. I assume the same thing would work with chickens, but you'd have to have smaller pieces. It has also been a lifesaver with the goats a time or two when I was out of antibiotics and couldn't get anymore. Depending how sick they are, I'll give them up to 5 cloves a day. I think they could maybe handle more, but I'm not sure. Some goats really like it and will eat it out of your hand. Some goats really DON'T like it and then it gets interesting! Same sort of uses for dogs, but you have to be careful with the dose and length of time given as they can develop Heinz body anemia from it. That's why you're not supposed to give dogs garlic and onions. I've only done it twice and was very careful with it.

I'm sure garlic can be used in many other ways as well and I'm always open to experimentation. Anybody else have any favorite garlic uses?