Foodie!

[Thomas]

Bern...

When writing about food the author has to make sure not to give out potentially harmful information. In other words, CYA.

Raw garlic, if not cleaned, can have composted material attached to it that could make people sick. Also, too much can cause intestinal disturbance.

Having said that, I eat garlic raw--in fact, the recipe for Osso Buco in the book has raw garlic blended with parsley and lemon rind for the gremalade.

As for growing your own, the best way to do is to locate a local garlic festival and buy seed garlic from a grower. You can grow it from commercial garlic you get in stores, but you never know the viability of anything commercially grown.

And yes, you simply break off the cloves and plant them a couple of inches apart in the fall. But there is more to know. There is a section in the book about growing garlic.

I've been growing it for about ten years and just last year I got the soil the way it should be to grow the best garlic. We have nasty clay here that defies all attempts at lightening it up--all except a ten-year attempt...

I missed your post before the edit--did you perhaps refer to me by that dreaded nickname? [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/wink.gif[/img]

[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 04-30-2006).]