From ancient mountain slopes to every kitchen on Earth, garlic has travelled further than almost any spice or herb. The bulbs we use today trace their roots to the Tien Shan mountains of Central Asia, where wild ancestors were first gathered, then cultivated thousands of years ago.
From there, garlic followed the great migrations of people — east into India and China, west through Persia and Egypt, and across the Mediterranean with the Greeks and Romans. By the Middle Ages, it was a staple of both medicine and cooking across Europe, prized for flavour and strength. The Spanish and Portuguese later carried it to the Americas, where it took hold in the soils of the New World, blending into cuisines from Mexico to Argentina.
Yet across the ocean, long before this global journey began, early civilisations in North and South America were already cooking with their own native alliums — wild onion and garlic cousins that grew freely in the forests and plains. While unrelated to the cultivated bulb from Asia, they filled the same role: flavour, medicine, and magic. Two garlic trails, born worlds apart, both leading to the same universal truth — that some tastes are simply meant to be shared.
Like all good food, it should be shared - whoever you are sharing with this week, enjoy all Steve and the Spice Team