This is odd and surprising. Since the primary purpose of refrigeration is to attenuate natural processes.

Educational thread though! ^ I love garlic, but I generally cook it!

I can't imagine eating raw garlic (though I have been known to take a little bit of what's on the cutting board...so maybe I do have it raw sometimes).

garlic comes in many flavors. elephant garlic, which is the common one grown for local markets in the mid atlantic is a very large head, and very mild. some of the italian varities are very strong.

Garlic is one of the many reasons I look forward to eating Korean barbecue. Usually accompanying the meat are about fifteen cloves...

I've seen garlic juice in the Republic of Korea. Has anyone tried it? (Come to think of it, I tried a tinned version of it, with a blend of ginger, somewhere in Japan).

Interesting. Was it packed with tons of added sugar like a lot of stuff over there is? Or just plain garlic with non-sugary stuff added?

Didn't think I'd learn such a thing on FT... I LOVE garlic in all forms, but it often gives me terrible gas if I have more than a little. Sounds like I have an experiment to run next time!

I'm sorry, I got that drink mixed up with one from the ROK. The ginger drink in Japan had welsh (spring) onion (called tamanegi) instead of garlic. It was sweet, but not nearly as sweet as many other things usually are. The garlic drink, although in at least one form sold in Japan, was from the ROK.

Another note- one of the many things I like about Japan is that you can easily find drinks WITHOUT added sugar (for example, sugarless bottled tea is the norm). Unrelated, but um...well at least it's germane to dining buzz.

i bought two kinds of garlic from a farm in lancaster pa(10lbs). was delivered this week. i gave a couple heads to each of two chefs in name brand dc restaurants to get their comments. comments were "something is wrong with the garlic we have been getting recently" they say it is labeled from usa, but they have been boiling??? it twice before using, and it still does not taste right.

Wow, I didn't know that. You made a good point here. I will try to look at it more.

Good to know. I eat a lot of garlic and have never thought to remove this little stalk.

Garlic, like some other bulbs like tulips requires vernalization to grow. It needs a period of cold. If you are planting it, you would normally plant it in the fall if you are in an area with winter, if not, like tulips, you have to get it cold for a while to trick it. Forty degrees (about the temp of the fridge for a few weeks usually is enough to get it into growing mode again . If your garlic was shipped refrigerated, or was refrigerated in the store, it may already have several weeks of cold behind it and it's all ready to sprout.

Mike, you are just a fount of knowledge.

No, it does not require vernalization to grow... Just to flower. A non-vernalized tulip, likewise, will grow but not flower. Plant your garlic whenever is most convenient.

ok, i will plant a few rows of cloves next week, and we'll see if they grow into anything by fall.

Entirely too much knowledge on display in this thread :D