Garlic Millionaires

We’re trying to grow garlic in our back garden as fast as we can. Apparently, it’s the new way to make a mint (ha ha!) these days in China and if we could just build up enough tonnage of the stinky stuff, we could ship this new white gold across the globe for millions. Sky News reports that there is a belief amongst the Chinese that garlic can prevent swine flu and prices for the bulb have shot through the roof as a result. People are hoarding it as well, making the commodity even scarcer and thereby driving up prices even more.

You can also find out more via the following news report from New Tang Dynasty TV below:

This Garlic Fever makes me think of the Tulip Fever that gripped the Netherlands 400 years ago when the craze for tulips led to an overheated market in tulip futures and a single bulb exchanged hands for the price of a house! I blogged about a terrific book on that subject Tulipomania last year. Back in the 1600s, the tulip market collapsed one afternoon when a trader got up to sell and was met by a deathly silence as no-one responded to buy - within moments, everyone was selling and by the end of the afternoon, the fortunes of the traders and their investors had vanished.

So, come on, little garlic bulbs in the garden, hurry up and grow - we’d like to cash you guys in before the market collapses….!

Photo: from my own collection