Son Resurrects His Father’s Forgotten Garlic from Childhood Garden 40 Years Later

Family heirlooms are special because they've been carefully and intentionally passed down from one generation to the next. While most family heirlooms are jewelry, photos, or furniture pieces, one Reddit user discovered a different type of family keepsake—a specific strain of garlic.

Growing up, the Redditor's father grew a specific garlic variety that he described as rich, pungent, and unlike any other variety he had tried. However, when his parents moved from their country home in the 1990s, his father's prized garlic was left behind on the property.

"He lost the strain when they moved and traveled for the next decade, but it was never forgotten," the Redditor said in his post. "Even more so after I settled down and started growing my own. Every year, as we'd sample the new crop, Dad would say something like 'yeah, but it's not the same as the stuff I used to grow.'"

Reviving 40-Year-Old Garlic

Years later, the Redditor came across his childhood home while on vacation with his wife. After asking the new owner if he could show his wife around the outside of the property, he ventured to where his dad's garden used to be. Overgrown with blackberries and ivy, the man spotted remnants of garlic from his father's garden.

"I was able to dig one out of the rock-hard ground, took it with me, and the idea sparked that I could regrow his strain," he said.

After planting five of the old cloves in his garden, he was able to harvest four small garlic heads the following summer. The next year, he harvested 22 heads. He, as he called it, "resurrected" his dad's decades-old garlic, and he was excited to share his passion project with him.

Reunited with His Garlic

"Last night we had supper with my 86-year-old dad and brought a few small heads of his garlic back to him, along with a small dish of fresh garlic butter and some French bread rounds for a taste," he said. "The look on his face when he took a bite and got a hit of that sharp, pungent garlic was good enough, but the icing on the cake was his, 'Now that's what garlic is supposed to taste like!'"

Responses to the Story

Other Reddit users flooded the post's comment section, thanking him for sharing his story and even encouraging him to sell some of his garlic harvest.

"Listen man, we're going to need you to open a store," one user said.

"I had to take a mental health break from reading the news," another user wrote. "Your dad's garlic story is exactly what I needed! Thanks!"