First, go to the garden (or the grocery store) and bring home a couple bulbs of garlic. A bulb is the golf-ball size pod of the plant, which can be separated into many cloves—shaped like the individual wedges taken from an orange. Break off two or three large cloves, and lay them on your counter. Set some water on the stove to warm, and then spread out a clean washcloth or double-thick paper towel. Smack the garlic cloves with the bottom of a heavy glass to lightly bruise or crush them. Now the papery skin will come off easily. Take the bruised cloves and dice them up, or smash them in a garlic press so that the juice billows out the familiar aroma that makes you hungry for Lasagna.

Lay the 2-3 tablespoons of minced garlic in the center of your washcloth or paper towel, and fold in the edges of the cloth, creating what I call a “poultice” or “plaster.” Place this garlic pad in a bowl or plate and pour warm (not hot) water over it. Let it sit for 5 seconds or so, then drain and squeeze the excess water out with your hands. Apply the warm (not hot!) poultice to the chest, back, and soles of the feet (alternately) for about 60 seconds each for treatment of any virus, cold, flu, infection, etc…

Garlic poultices can also be used for earaches—placing crushed garlic or a garlic poultice against the infected ear. Also, a clove of garlic wedged in the ear like an old fashioned hearing aid works great for earaches (but be careful not to leave too long, or you will burn the skin!)

For flesh wound infections, hold against the wound lightly for about two minutes. Repeat several times a day.

To treat eye infections, hold poultice over the tightly closed eye for about two minutes. Careful! This burns really bad if it gets in the eye.

Warm garlic oil is also healing and comforting in an ear when there is an infection. The oil is made by adding a few drops of olive oil to a tiny bit of fresh crushed garlic, let sit for a few minutes, then strain out all the garlic and discard. The oil that goes in the ear must be free of any visible particles. You will have enough for one application of warm garlic oil for an earache. I always make mine fresh.

Do not make it too strong, because it can burn the skin. Experiment on the inside of your arm to see how strong or how long you can leave the garlic on your skin without it burning. It can literally blister your skin (chemical heat.)