This picture perfectly captures a moment of sheer surprise and delight that Yasmine and Adam Bonner will never forget.
The commercial growers of chemical-free garlic had ripped away overgrown grass to find large gnarled "nests" of the most ginormous Russian elephant garlic plants they’d ever seen.
"I was amazed. The first thing I did was sort of stand over it and look at everything," Mr Bonner said.
"When you're as into growing garlic as we are and you see something that's amazing like that, it just takes your breath away."
The Guinness World Record for the heaviest garlic head was 1.19 kilograms, set in California in 1985.
Four of the Bonner's whopping bulbs, with stems attached, weighed in at 5.05 kg. They did not think to measure them separately.
Technically speaking, the Bonner's gigantic garlic could not have set a new world record.
Russian elephant garlic is not scientifically classified as garlic, being more closely related to leeks.
"It's a funny thing because [Russian elephant] still tastes like garlic. It looks like garlic. It grows like garlic, but they technically say it's a leek," Ms Bonner said.
But then again, no details were kept on the garlic variety that set the Guinness World Record.
"So there's a loophole, maybe that could have technically been a leek too. Who knows? But you can get some really big [garlic] cultivars growing overseas as well," Ms Bonner said.
A long process
The big bulbs may have been growing for as long as six years, dating back to when the couple founded The Garlic Clinic at Brogo in New South Wales' Bega Valley.
"When we're processing the garlic in our shed, I throw the waste out the back door, which usually the birds or the cattle eat, but these obviously didn't get eaten," Ms Bonner said.
Safe in an unmown patch where the farmers had planted trees, the bulbs thrived on neglect. They were not fertilised, or watered.
"We didn't know that it created nests. I've never seen nesting garlic before, it's a whole bunch of garlics and they're very closely packed together," Mr Bonner said.
"It wasn't just one or two nests, there were half a dozen of them."
Australian Garlic Industry Association chair John Oliff remains a garlic purist and said that for many years "Elephant garlic was considered a bit of a weed on the roadside".
But species aside, the Bonners see the beauty in the mild-flavoured, versatile bulbs and their beautiful ornamental flowers.
"I love it on a cracker with a little bit of butter but the best way in my view to use Russian elephant garlic, apart from cooking with it, is to turn it into black garlic," Mr Bonner said.
Black garlic is made by slow cooking the bulbs continuously at very low temperatures for three to four weeks.
"It caramelises the garlic and it brings out the sweetness. It's just exquisite. It's a beautiful thing to have. It's a culinary delight."
As well as Russian elephant garlic the couple grow chemical-free Italian pink, Italian white, purple stripe and Monaro red garlic which was introduced to Australia by the first Yugoslavian tunnel diggers for the Snowy Mountains hydro-electric scheme.
People with alliumphobia (a fear of garlic) could be opposed to the couple's love of consuming raw garlic, but Mr Bonner doesn't care about the potential effect on the smell of their breath.
"We will just eat it every day and when I pack my lunch to go off to work it usually incorporates raw garlic, it keeps me healthy," he said.
An ancient medicine
Garlic has been used medicinally since the beginning of recorded history.
Cloves were identified in King Tutankhamen's tomb and garlic was repeatedly referred to in the Ebers Papyrus, the Egyptian compilation of medical text.
It was prescribed for abnormal growths, parasites, circulatory ailments and as a heart tonic.
Australian-grown garlic is a potentially healthier alternative to cheaper imported garlic which must be fumigated to reduce the risk of bringing in pests and pathogens.
