Follow your nose. En route to Gilroy, California, the 'garlic capital of the world'' you’ll smell this little bulb before you see it. Just stroll past an Italian restaurant and you can't miss its piquant aroma. The flavor it lends is unmistakable and essential in everything from classic American comfort food to all kinds of multi-cultural cuisine.

It started in the fertile ground and mild climate of the West coast, an ideal scenario for garlic plants, with the ‘softneck’ variety predominant in California. Gilroy opened with a processing facility of just 20,000 square feet, completing its first production run on October 17, 1959. Back then, the distinctive papery white bulbs were sorted by hand and Gilroy concentrated on processing dehydrated garlic.

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