GARLIC: We wrote Tuesday that Andy Heffner of Ormsby was telling us of the medicinal uses of garlic. “I eat garlic all the time,” he told us.

Well, Andy also told us about a man he used to know in Smethport — Carl was his name — who grew garlic. He recalls going to Carl’s house and seeing two hay wagons piled with garlic bulbs.

Carl told Andy that he had worked with an Italian man on pipelines back in the 1920s. When the man — a young newlywed — came to the United States, he and his wife were told to hide garlic in their clothing, and even to sew pockets on the inside of her dress to put garlic in.

They were told, “Don’t put it in your suitcase. They’ll search and take it away from you,” Andy explained.

“Carl said, ‘I never saw this guy sick,’” said Andy, who noted the Italian man always carried for lunch a stick of pepperoni, a half loaf of bread, a drink in a brown bottle and garlic. “He always ate that garlic.”

Carl told Andy, “I was starting to raise extra stuff and sell it.” He asked the Italian man for about three years if he could have some of his garlic to sell, and he always said no. “Finally, on the third year he came out with two bulbs of garlic.” He told Carl that, whatever he harvested, he could eat half but he had to plant the other half.

“Now,” Carl told Andy, “I have four tons of garlic I sell.”

Andy asked Carl how he planted the garlic, and Carl told him it’s “just like a two-by-four” — two inches deep and four inches apart. The plants need fertilized, he added.

Andy noted a couple of his sons worked for Carl at one time, helping him plant.

One of his sons, who now lives in Ohio, had bought a quart jar of oil with garlic in it. Andy said he took the store-bought garlic out, put his own garlic in and filled the jar with extra virgin olive oil.

On a side note, Andy told us the time frame for a recipe we asked for from readers.

It was 1969-70 that Andy’s son received a recipe for hickory stuffing from his Smethport kindergarten teacher. Andy made it at the time and really liked it, but he can’t find the recipe anywhere and was hoping one of our readers remembered it.

So, Readers, do any of you have a hickory stuffing recipe you could share?