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  • From: Liannan88 AT aol.com
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Garlic & Oil
  • Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 17:26:54 EDT

Remember that game we played when we were young called "gossip", where one person whispers something in another's ear, & it goes around the room, and when it gets back to the first person, it in no way resembles what was originally said?

I just took the Food Safety Course this year as a prerequisite to getting my kitchen state-certified, & the subject of garlic was brought up.  We were told that raw garlic in any kind of salad dressing was subject to botulism.  Now, any idiot who understands the basics of pickling knows this is not true & depends on acidity, but how does one argue with representatives from TX A&M?  (The course was taught by several of our area Consumer Science extension agents, who also didn't always agree on certain points, such as whether frozen food should be held at 32 or 0 degrees!)

We were also told a number of other ridiculous things that we would NOT have been told had someone a little more credible been teaching the course.  I also got very tired of the way they "slammed" direct-market farming.  (And, I get tired of the way they do it in their newpaper columns every week, however inadvertantly.)  According to them, unless your eggs & poultry come from the supermarket (or delivery truck, in the case of this course), they aren't fresh or safe & can't be trusted.  Never mind that the last dozen eggs I got from the supermarket ALL floated in a pan of water, or that I just spent all morning painstakingly plucking a few chickens that are far superior to the ones from the store that smell like ammonia.

And, back when I was learning about aromatherapy, I learned that FRESH garlic was anti-bacterial & anti-fungal.  Now, somehow, it can "harbor" botulism.  The "outbreak" from botulism that was recorded in Sarasota came from a home-bottled mix that contained "pre-peeled, pre-packaged" garlic, whatever that is!  I know we have to play by the rules, but some of them need to be explained VERY CAREFULLY!  And, I would very much like to see an actual scientific study that proves to me that garlic can "harbor" botulism, & NOT one conducted by TxAMU!  (Of course, until then, I'm not doing it either!)

-Maridian



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