Buying: Choose garlic with firm bulbs and thin paper-like skin with no spots of discoloration. Avoid bulbs with green sprouts, a signal that they’re not fresh. Buy garlic in small amounts, one or two bulbs at a time, unless you’re planning a garlic cookathon - to ensure that it’s at the peak of freshness and pungency.

Garlic already chopped or minced is probably available in your grocery store’s fresh produce department, and you’ll find it in dehydrated form in the spice section. For an even wider variety of garlic, check a health food store. You’ll find organically grown garlic, garlic packed in natural preservatives, and preparations such as garlic extract oil and powdered garlic in capsules.

Growing: If you’re interested in growing your own garlic, you can start from either seeds or cloves, though starting with cloves is easier and gives you a head start. Plant them in early spring, as long as six weeks before the last frost (garlic doesn’t mind the cold). Locate a spot with full-to-partial shade.

As the weather warms, bulbs will develop. In the summer, flower stalks will appear. Cut the stalks back so the plants can direct their full attention underground to developing bulbs. As autumn approaches, the tops will bend and brown. Stop watering your plants for a few days and then harvest your crop. Spread them, tops, dirt and all, on a screen in the shade for a few days to dry, then chop off the tops and shake off the dirt.

Storing: Garlic stays fresh for weeks when stored in a cool, dry, dark place with plenty of air circulation. In other words, keep them out of your refrigerator and instead in something like a metal mesh basket hung in a dark pantry.

For indefinite storage, peel and store the cloves in a glass jar filled with olive oil.

Cooking: Garlic is a wonderfully versatile cooking ingredient. Some of the world’s best recipes call for it. As a kitchen guideline, one average size clove of garlic is equal to one-eighth teaspoon of dehydrated, powdered, minced, or chopped garlic or one-half teaspoon of garlic salt. (When using garlic salt, make sure you cut back on the amount of table salt in your recipe.)

To peel garlic easily, pinch off the skin with your fingers or apply pressure with the flat side of a knife blade to ease the clove out. Or loosed the skin by mircowaving cloves on high for five seconds or dipping them into

boiling water for just a few seconds. Chop garlic with a knife or mash it with a garlic press.

When trying garlic, be careful it doesn’t burn, which causes it to become bitter.

Stews and sauces containing garlic are most delicious when cooked long and slow.

For a taste treat, add minced garlic to herb butters, cheese spreads, breads, stuffings, and vegetables. You can also make your own delicious dressings by dropping a few peeled cloves into containers of oil and vinegar. (This is especially tasty with wine vinegar.)

Be sure to try roasted garlic. Place a few cloves in a covered clay or ceramic dish for about 15 minutes in an oven heated to 350 degrees. Being careful not to burn yourself, scoop out the mushy contents and spread them on fresh bread or crackers, or mix it into sauces or marinades.

Aged garlic extract is the form used most often in research studies on the plant’s medicinal benefits. However, most experts agree that these - including garlic oils, capsules, pills, and other special preparations - are not necessarily superior to fresh or cooked garlic. One advantage to processed forms, or course, is that they will save you from raw garlic’s sharp flavor and smell. As a general rule, eating a half to two cloves a day in one form or another should help you reap its health benefits.

Garlic breath: Emitting garlic breath isn’t exactly a good way to make friends and influence people. Worse yet, it’s virtually unavoidable if you’re handling fresh garlic. The sulfur that causes the herb’s smell is so incredibly strong and so easily absorbed by the body that the mere act of chopping a garlic clove - even if you don’t actually eat it - causes it to be absorbed by the skin and released in your breath.

To counteract garlic breath, try chewing on a sprig of fresh parsley, a piece of orange peel, or a roasted coffee bean. Or rinse your mouth with a mixture of lemon juice and water. Eating grated carrots along with your garlic or an apple afterward may help. To remove garlic odor from your hands, rub your skin with salt mixed into lemon juice, or with toothpaste, and rinse.

If everything about you smells garlicky, a long hot bath will steam these garlic oils right out of your body.