From The Kitchen At Canyon Keep #6: Sweet Sour Pickled Garlic

Dearest Amma,

I really miss you.  I wish you were here to talk to.  I honestly knew this was a multi-generational family, and they are very kind to me, but … sometimes … I feel like a child in my own home.

Somehow I thought I would at least be the mistress of something, but that is not the case.  Ah’rane is the matriarch, but she is a Frictional Analysis Engineer and works often on other things.  Ah’din, is the one under whose ministrations this home runs like silk through a loom.She is a doctor, an herbalist, and she has said there are some things I will need to know for the good health of myself, my husband and my family.  I guess when she said it I felt a little insulted, like I wouldn’t know how to do that, but she is so kind and so gentle, I found myself being drawn in to what she was saying.

The sunny windowsills in our house are lined with jars and bottles of herbs in various liquids, being turned by time and the sun into the tinctures that Ah’din says keep us healthy.  I was aware that small bottles of different concoctions sit on our table, and that the family members put droppers-full of them into their tea.  Apparently, their genesis is in our windowsills.  There is another thing which sits in abundance on the windowsill and then in the pantry before coming to the table, and that is an oddity called sweet sour pickled garlic.  Ah’din got me to try one, and it’s really good!  It contains all the medicinal value of raw garlic but without the smell, the strong taste, and the intestinal upset that can come from the raw stuff.  Here is how to make it.

Wish you were here!  Please come see us soon!

Much love, Ah’ree

SWEET SOUR PICKLED GARLIC

(According to Ardenai’s grandmother, it is “good for what ails you.”)

On the short list of things you will need:

• Fresh peeled garlic cloves, either prepared or purchased.
• Tamari or unpasteurized pome (apple) cider vinegar
• Raw, local honey
• A sunny windowsill and plenty of patience

Decide how much you want to make, then fill a wide-mouthed glass jar with the garlic cloves, and completely cover them with either the tamari or the vinegar.  Cap it and place the jar in a sunny windowsill or warm spot for half a season.  (One Terren month.)

Pour off half the vinegar and set it aside for making other things.  Pour off the rest, measure it, and put it in a sauce making pot. Add an equal amount of honey, warm it gently to blend it, and pour it back over the garlic cloves.  Recap it, set it back in the windowsill or warm spot for yet another half-season, and then put it in a dark, cool spot in the pantry where it will keep for a full year or more.

It is hot and pungent, but it is also sweet, and I think you and Appa will both like it.  Eat it whenever you want.  According to Equi legend it is why they live two hundred and fifty years.  I’m guessing it’s more a genetic thing, but I could be wrong!