Rotten on Netflix: Does It Affect You?

I was very much not a fan of the one NM garlic farming couple.

finally watched this episode. so far my takeaway from these issues is "know your sources". CR makes a nice product that is all over restaurant kitchens, but reminds me of the bottled water (which i think is a complete scourge) - when did these things (peeled garlic/ubiquitous plastic water bottles) become a thing and why is greed so all-encompassing in consumerland?

For decades, CR has made/sold jars of minced garlic, crushed garlic, and chopped garlic -- I actually buy these more often than raw bulbs of garlic. It's more convenient, it works better in certain recipes, and geez -- have you had to peel a lot of garlic? When the Chinese guy was talking about the prisoners biting the roots, I was like, I can so relate. I hadn't thought to do that, but, I know that physical feeling.

I usually buy 3 cloves at a time and just do the shaking them in two bowls method to peel them and store. All the circumstances in that episode seemed like a complete mess. I was trying to look up how much the one couple accepted from Harmoni but instead started reading a reddit about them.

one of the main things that bugged me about that episode is that the show was making this argument about "loss of American jobs" re Harmoni/CR, and never mentioned that actually, Christopher Ranch grows garlic, and they employ a significant number of workers, other California garlic growers also employ a significant number of workers -- more than the New Mexico people or similar farmers with really small operations. .... I remember the initial Chinese garlic dumping period, actually, I think it was my freshman or sophomore year in college, and my mom was alternately stressed out about how much this was financially hurting her employers (not CR at the time), but she would then reassure me that even if it continued to be really bad, she would come up with the money to pay for me to finish 4 years and graduate (though they couldn't afford for me to take any longer than 4 years, lol).

yeah, i guess my peeled garlic complaint was unjustified. a restaurant prep cook can buzz in 10 seconds what would otherwise take an hour or more. i can recall being in a actual restaurant and having to peel garlic, but only for a small cafe, not a big operation. do it at home though and it takes 5 seconds, just a little smash, remove the paper and chop. or if i need slices i'll soak clove in water and the paper comes off rather easily. agree with the loss of American jobs. and at farmer's markets i have been to, at the right time of year, there is invariably a farmer with onions and garlic. so it's not like a lot of consumers don't have that as another option
xpost

generally, when working with fresh garlic, i chop the tips off and then peel by hand, but it's not like that is "the insider's way" -- I don't think I've ever asked my mom how she does it. She used to do catering for a while.

find peeling garlic very easy, just do the crush with the side of the blade way after chopping the top off (used to chop very bottom off too until an ilxor let me know this was silly)

can see peeled garlic making sense in a resto of course

speaking of restaurants -- the food allergy episode! OMG!