Found out most garlic in stores is already sprouting before we even buy it

Was reading a farmers market newsletter last week and they said 70% of grocery store garlic has started sprouting by the time it hits the shelf. I always thought that green center just meant it was old, but apparently it changes the flavor way more than I realized. Anyone else start checking their bulbs closer after hearing something like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

danielnelson23d ago

Do they even test for that stuff or just let it sit in warehouses forever? I noticed my garlic from the store goes bad way faster than the stuff from the little farm stand down the road. Like, the farm stuff stays firm for weeks but grocery garlic gets that green shoot in like 5 days. Makes me wonder if they're just selling us last year's harvest at full price.

jade_jenkins23d ago

Yeah I'm not so sure it's that deep. Grocery stores move massive amounts of product so they pull from huge distributors who rotate stock all the time. Some of that garlic might be a little older but it's not like they're sitting on last year's crop. The farm stand stuff probably gets picked way later and hasn't been sitting in a truck for a week. That alone explains the difference in how fast it sprouts. Also different varieties store different lengths of time. The white papery stuff from the store is bred for yield not shelf life. It's just not that sinister.

charlescraig23d ago

Oh come on, are we really gonna turn garlic into a conspiracy theory now? It's just onions with a different lifespan, not some big grocery store plot. Fresh produce has natural variation in how long it sits around before you buy it, that's all.