Article: Second guessing your garlic: you've pursued bright green or purple heirloom tomatoes, obscure microgreens and pedigreed livestock for your menu--but do you care where your garlic comes from? Can you afford to look beyond that big plastic jug of peeled cloves, and if so, how much of a difference can it make to use heirloom or exotic varieties of garlic in the finished dish?(Recipe)

To garlic farmer Chester Aaron, there's a night-and-day difference between exotic varieties and what is commonly called 'commodity' garlic. Aaron, who is also a writer and professor of English at St. Mary's College of California, grows approximately 90 varieties of garlic on his farm in Occidental, in the northern part of the state. Aaron has hosted comparative garlic tasting events for several years, in an attempt to educate cooks and consumers about the flavor differences among garlic varieties.

"I did a tasting in New York about ten or twelve years ago," says Aaron. "I had all the stalks available, different leaves of different thicknesses and colors, and sample bulbs ...

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