Local Garlic

I love cooking with garlic - in stir-frys, salads, soups, sauces, pastas, you name it.  My family spreads roasted garlic on bread, and one day, I'm going to try out some of the chocolate-garlic recipes I have in my garlic cookbooks.  But it bothers me that most garlic in stores is from China.  That's right - China grows about 75% of the garlic sold in the U.S.

I'm not strongly on the locavore bandwagon - I support the idea in general, but the issues of where and how food is produced are more complex than just the country listed on the label.  There's also the issue of cost - in an ideal world, I'd buy local and shun internationally transported foods, but I need to be able to afford to eat.

But garlic... why on earth does that need to be imported?  It's not like buying peaches in January - it's a basic root crop, that can be grown in a variety of climates, and stored for a pretty long time. I might be willing to increase my carbon footprint for a persimmon or mango, but not for something as ubiquitous as garlic. So when I was at the local farmer's market, I decided to seek out some locally grown, organic garlic.

There was some sticker shock - the best deal I could find was 6 heads for $5, which was at least twice what I'd pay at the grocery store. Was it worth it? You bet. Besides the satisfaction of supporting regional small farms and not having used 7000 miles of fossil fuels to transport it from the other side of the planet, this was excellent quality garlic! The cloves separated easily and the peel fell right off to reveal perfect, smooth cloves.  I might not be ready to give up bananas or mangoes, but I can do my part and buy local garlic.