Maaseros 5:7-8

Maasros 5:7

Let’s say that a pile of grain that is ready to be tithed has antholes adjacent to it. If kernels of grain are found in holes where the ants stayed overnight, they must be tithed. This is because it is obvious that the ants took grain that needed to be tithed.

Maasros 5:8

Baal Bech garlic, Richpa onions, Kilakin beans and Egyptian lentils are all exempt from tithes and may be purchased from anyone in the sabbatical year (because none of these things grow in Israel, so they are obviously imported). Rabbi Meir adds karkas (a type of cabbage, apparently) and Rabbi Yosi adds wild lentils. Regarding the upper seeds of lof (a type of onion), as well as the seeds of leeks, onions, turnips, radishes, and other vegetables whose seeds are not eaten as food: these seeds are all exempt from tithes and may be purchased from anyone in the sabbatical year. They may be eaten even if they were grown from vegetables of terumah because the seeds themselves are not considered food.