Garlic, 'Product of China'.

Soilsniffer · November 2, 2007

I read somewhere that China has overtaken USA for #1 in garlic production. Gilroy isn't the garlic capital any more.

I bought some grocery store garlic last month, 'Product of China'. Sigh. I've been trying to buy just USA products before China takes over everything, but bought the imported stuff this time. Couldn't help it; they were beautiful. Clean and bright, uniform in size (all five heads in the package were between 70 and 75g each). $1.49 for the five.

Took 'em home, busted a bunch open. Hardneck. Liberated the seven largest cloves (9 8 8 7 7 7 7 grams), made pasta with a bunch of the 6g and less cloves. Delicious. Only about a 2 or 3 on the heat side, but the flavor was an 8 or 9.

Planted the seven liberated cloves 21 October. They were up in a week. And now, early morning 02 November, they're up over four inches. All seven of 'em. I planted other varieties (mostly heirlooms) 14 and 16 Oct, and maybe 3 or 4 of those have popped up, barely. Yet here's some new stuff out of China that got so tall in just a week and a half. And it tasted wonderful.

Though I'm trying to buy american, China is growing some fine garlic, in this case anyway. Anyone else attempting China garlic?

Awaiting next year's crop,
Jay

November 2, 2007	#1
Soilsniffer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: z7, Richmond VA Posts: 187	Garlic, 'Product of China'. I read somewhere that China has overtaken USA for #1 in garlic production. Gilroy isn't the garlic capital any more. I bought some grocery store garlic last month, 'Product of China'. Sigh. I've been trying to buy just USA products before China takes over everything, but bought the imported stuff this time. Couldn't help it; they were beautiful. Clean and bright, uniform in size (all five heads in the package were between 70 and 75g each). $1.49 for the five. Took 'em home, busted a bunch open. Hardneck. Liberated the seven largest cloves (9 8 8 7 7 7 7 grams), made pasta with a bunch of the 6g and less cloves. Delicious. Only about a 2 or 3 on the heat side, but the flavor was an 8 or 9. Planted the seven liberated cloves 21 October. They were up in a week. And now, early morning 02 November, they're up over four inches. All seven of 'em. I planted other varieties (mostly heirlooms) 14 and 16 Oct, and maybe 3 or 4 of those have popped up, barely. Yet here's some new stuff out of China that got so tall in just a week and a half. And it tasted wonderful. Though I'm trying to buy american, China is growing some fine garlic, in this case anyway. Anyone else attempting China garlic? Awaiting next year's crop, Jay __________________ Identifying garlic is done mostly by consensus. Many are like trying to identify the difference between twins.