Fun Garlic Facts

Garlic from the Guinness World Records

Weird Garlic Facts

 

Heaviest Garlic:

Heaviest head (bulb) of garlic was 2 lbs 10 oz. It was grown by Robert Kirkpatrick of Eureka, CA USA in 1985. This garlic gives me something to aim for in garlic bulb size! Unfortunately for us garlic growers, no mention was made of the garlic variety that grew to such a stupendous size. Since the record garlic was grown in California in 1985 I strongly suspect it was a softneck.

Picture: Patty wonders how many garlic bulbs she has to balance on her head to set a new world record.

Longest Garlic Braid:

The world record garlic string was made for an annual garlic festival in Mako, Hungary in 2006. It measured 836 ft 7 inches!

Hungary also can also brag about the world's first rhino calf born due to artificial insemination (2007 Budapest Zoo, Hungary). No word on whether the calf liked garlic (if you think a charging rhino is bad, try one with garlic breath!)

Winner of the 2013 First Annual World Garlic Eating Competition

Olive Farmer took home first place and  £100 (about $173) by eating 49 prepeeled garlic cloves in five minutes. Twenty six really tough tongued people took place in the September 2013 competition which was run by a garlic farm in Dorset, England. The competition raised money for charity with all entrance fee profits donated to Weldmar Hospicecare Trust and Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance.

Most Cloves Eaten in One Minute:

Guinness world record for most garlic cloves eaten in 1 minute is held by Deepak Sharma Bajagain. He consumed 34 cloves in Nepal on December 2009. No mention was made of the size of the garlic cloves.

So far Mr. Bajagain has broken 5 world records for charity events including World's Aid Day and Work for Children Food Campaign.

His other records include:

Continuous marathon reading out loud (113 hours and 15 minutes) in 2008.

Holding a table tennis ball continuously for 4 hours, 39 minutes and 52 seconds in 2009.

Licking 70 stamps in one minute in 2010.

Most envelopes torn in half in 30 seconds (41 envelopes) in 2011.

 

Weird garlic facts

Fear of garlic is alliumphobia: people with this disorder get a fearful and/or anxious reaction when they see or smell garlic. People with alliumphobia may also fear other pungent alliums such as onions, leeks or chives. Symptoms include sweating, feelings of doom or dread, dizziness, anxiety attack, rapid and irregular heartbeat, or feelings of irrational anger.

Garlic and warts: some people believe that garlic can cure warts. The garlic wart cure involves rubbing a fresh garlic clove all over the wart(s) and covering it with a bandage. Warts are commonly caused by the human papilloma virus. Although scientific data on this is limited, since garlic kills many viruses it may also kill warts. One small study found that garlic oil applied 2x day removed warts within 1-2 weeks (Dehghsani et al. 2005).

Garlic is both a vegetable and a herb.

During WWII garlic was given to wounded soldiers to treat gangrene. It was known as 'Russian Penicillin'. See garlic and medicine for more on garlic's use in ancient medicine.

The Russian term for garlic is chesnok. So Chesnok Red means 'garlic red'.

 

References:

Dehghani F, A Merat, MR Panjehshahin, F Handjani. Healing effect of garlic extract on warts and corns. MD International Journal of Dermatology. 2005;44:612–5. Pubmed.