On Sun, 11 Jul 2010 15:30:52 -0400, Nancy Young wrote:

> blake murphy wrote:
>> On Sun, 11 Jul 2010 11:18:44 -0400, Nancy Young wrote:
>
>>> As I understand it, the garlic is irradiated and for that reason, the
>>> roots fall off. If the garlic bulb is smooth, I don't buy it.
>
>> i read this a while back from an australian blogger:
>>
>> Want irradiated garlic? Go to the supermarket and buy Chinese garlic.
>> I saw documents the other day from the Chinese nuclear industry that
>> gave the specifications for the irradiation machines used in their
>> garlic industry.
>>
>> Three good ways to tell Chinese garlic:
>>
>> 1. The whole box will be all perfectly large and white. (Australian
>> buyers only buy the cosmetically perfect Chinese garlic)
>> 2. There will be no roots on the bottom of the bulb. (Workers will
>> have cut these away to sped up the drying process)
>> 3. It will have the Country of Origin label
>>
>> <http://www.gmagazine.com.au/blog/521/is-your-garlic-irradiated>
>
> Thanks! Very interesting. We can easily find US garlic here, I'd be
> annoyed if I was stuck with irradiated.
>
> nancy

i had never paid much attention to the roots/no roots thing.

in any case, i'm glad most of the garlic in the market looks much better
than it did a few years ago, which bordered on pitiful.

your pal,
blake