Ashley writes:
My neighbors Earl and Jo-Anne always grow lots of elephant garlic. Earl told me that years and years ago, when he and Jo-Anne moved in to their house, two neighbors – “two old guys” Earl describes them – always grew elephant garlic and gave some to Earl and Jo-Anne. They’ve grown it ever since.
Earlier this summer, Earl was cutting down the dried stalks of the garlic and put a stack of them into the branches of one of their cherry trees on their parking strip. Yesterday morning, this playful sign showed up hanging in the tree.
Earl doesn’t know who did it — other than “the Garlic Gods,” of course. But he got a real kick out of it. We don’t know what the Latin says at the bottom – neither of us speak Latin and I haven’t hit up the interwebs for it quite yet.
I happened to be walking my dog and chatting with Earl yesterday when he came upon it. One of the many, many reasons I love my neighborhood – gardening humor!
Maybe an Wallingford Latin scholar can help with the translation?
On a related note, the cherry tomatoes outside our house (4065 4th Ave NE) are ripe and have a sign on them: “Please Snack On Me”. If you have fruits or vegetables growing near the sidewalk of your house, and don’t mind sharing with a passing neighbor, let them know! It’s a shame to see so many apples and plums and such going to waste.
Grapes! Please help yourselves. I picked a large bowl yesterday, which can be found at 2102 N 42nd St. These are table grapes, good for eating and making raisins. Not sure they are vintner quality.
It’s from a poem by Virgil that describes a farmer’s lunch, including moretum, a garlic cheese spread. The part quoted translates as “his right hand first
softens with the pestle the fiery garlic, then all alike he grinds
the mixed flavors. His hand goes in circles: little by little
strength destroys each single individual; from many there is
one color, neither wholly green, which fights against the milky-
white in vain, nor pressing upon the white, which is changed
by so many herbs.”
http://moas.eastkingdom.org/articles/moretum_roman_cheese.html
Oh Wallingford. I love you.
I feel that the reporter glossed over the central mystery of this story: Why was Earl stacking garlic stalks in cherry trees?
Thanks for the translation, Kimberly! The translations that I found were all so stultifyingly formal and dull. I also found out that some scholars think that this poem is where the Founding Fathers got “E Pluribus Unum.” (I don’t know how truthy that is; I didn’t delve into that.) It’s from the phrase: “color est e pluribus unus” [‘from many there is one color’]
And Earl has added his own sign which reads:
” Historical Footnote
These garlic bulbs are the progeny of bulbs planted in the early 1930s by two wonderful neighbors. They resided on either side of this property — thanks to Hugo Wolf and Al Bond.
Happy Gardening!
Earl
”
As to why Earl put the stalks in the cherry tree… that remains between Earl and The Garlic Gods.
– ashley (a.k.a. LoWo Roller)