Organic Seed Garlic

We only grow and sell garlic varieties that perform well for us. Over the 20 years we’ve farmed, on three different sites, we’ve seen a wide range of growing conditions; from clay soils to silty; from cold and dry to too-wet-to-cultivate in the late winter; from cool, wet springs where nothing wants to grow and hot spring-summers when we’re irrigating in late March. These varieties have been productive enough for us as farmers to grow, and resilient enough to handle less-than-perfect conditions. Additionally we have chosen varieties which keep well for their type to ensure the longest possible sales and culinary window for farmers and gardeners.

Keep in mind that softnecks prefer warmer conditions and hardnecks prefer colder conditions. Many regions of the country can grow both, but if you have more extreme conditions, select those varieties best suited to your site. Additionally, softnecks tend to store better, especially silverskins, while rocomboles generally have the shortest storage window.

We’ve found that the most important factors in producing great garlic, after variety selection and seed quality, is good fertilization, both at plant-out and in the late winter as growth resumes, and good early weed control, up to about early May. Garlics are shallow-rooted so cannot handle excessive hoeing if weeds get out of control, and they don’t compete well. So mulching or diligent weeding out of young weeds is a must.

CERTIFIED ORGANIC SEED GARLIC

January 2012 Update

Welcome to the New Year! To all that have planted garlic we hope your crop is wintering nicely. A reminder, because we can't help but nag a bit - apply a booster fertilizer in late winter, early spring when you're out there weeding like crazy. Weed a bit, fertilize a bit, weed a bit more. A very satisfying adventure, a nice sense of accomplishment to start your growing season.

We are offering Inchelium Red for Winter/Spring planting. This variety seems to do well when planted at this time, so if you missed your Fall planting window you may want to try some. We planted it in February, planning on using it for green garlic in the late Spring, but about half of it ended up in the ground until harvest in July. We were quite surprised and pleased that it made full cloves and decent-sized bulbs. Not quite as big as Fall-planted but since our Inchelium Red is so big anyways the bulbs were quite passable, eatable and salable at our markets. We plan on Winter/Spring planting a few other varieties this year to see how they fare. If they do well we'll offer them next Winter.

We are also offering a Green Garlic assortment to plant now for green garlic. Since these varieties are a bit later-maturing and you would be planting late, they will hold in the field as green garlic later since they will start dividing into cloves so late. (Green garlic is best used before the plant starts cloving, when it can be chopped up like a scallion.) The price on this is lower, at $9.00 per lb., and since the bulbs are slightly smaller you will get more plants per pound too. You can plant closer together than regular garlic, or with 2-3 cloves per hole. Remember, since you will be harvesting the plants green and they don't need to dry down, you can interplant them with any of your spring plantings, as long as they won't get crowded out as their neighbor plants mature. Green garlic is a wonderful treat, both for us and for our market customers as we patiently wait for the new garlic to mature.

Silverskins and Artichokes:
$9 for 8 oz., $15 per lb. Bulk pricing on seed garlic available for quantities over 12 lbs. per variety; please email your request and we’ll give you a quote.

Rocomboles, Porcelains, Purple Stripes, Asiatics and Creoles:
$11 for 8 oz., $18 per lb. Bulk pricing on seed garlic available for quantities over 12 lbs. per variety; please email your request and we’ll give you a quote.

To pay by check:
please email us your order and we’ll get back with you with a total due and mailing address.

Garlic Assortment for Green Garlic and Fresh Eating

We will choose from several varieties of garlic. For green garlic, plant in the late winter/early spring and harvest as needed in May/June. Pull, chop and eat the whole thing - top to bottom!

1lbs - 3 lbs 1 lb $9.00 USD 2 $18.00 USD 3 $27.00 USD

SOFTNECK VARIETIES

ARTICHOKES

Artichoke varieties are reliable, vigorous, long keeping and easy to grow. Their bulbs are large and their cloves tend to be big and easy to peel. Plus, they store nearly as well as silverskins. If there’s only room for one garlic in your garden or on your farm, this is the one to grow.

Inchelium Red - Whistling Duck Strain

This variety originally came from the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington State. We’ve been growing and selecting for nearly 20 years to develop our own reliable, productive strain, with nice bulb shape and large cloves. It’s our best all-around garlic, with a strong following amongst our chefs and market customers. Flavor is mild but rich, not overpowering, can be used raw or cooked. Bulbs can get very large, 3-4” across, with big easy-peel cloves. With 15-20 cloves per bulb, yields are also great. Mid-season harvest, stores well. Also available in bulk, please email for price and shipping.

8 oz - 3 lbs 8 oz $9.00 1 lb $15.00 2 lb $30.00 3 lb $45.00

4 lbs - 10 lbs 4 lb $60.00 5 lb $75.00 6 lb $90.00 7 lb $105.00 8 lb $120.00 9 lb $135.00 10 lb $150.00

SILVERSKINS

Silverskins have shiny, clean white wrappers and thin strong necks, which makes beautiful braids.  They harvest fairly late and keep the longest of all the varieties, providing fresh garlic well into spring, until you can harvest the first fresh garlic from the new season.

Silverskin - Whistling Duck Strain

Silver Rose

HARDNECK VARIETIES

PORCELAINS

Porcelain types are loved for their large, flavorful cloves, rich and sweet like Rocomboles. Their clove wrappers are tighter, though, so they tend to keep longer. Large cloves means the number of cloves per bulb is low, usually 6-8, so their yield per pound of seed planted in the garden is not as high as with many other varieties. Porcelains also reliably produce scapes for spring harvest.

Romanian Red

Music

Georgian Crystal

Georgian Fire

German Extra Hardy

German Porcelain

ROCOMBOLES

Rocomboles are the true gourmet garlic, with a deep rich flavor that is much desired by chefs. Their clove wrappers tend to be loose, making them easy to peel but giving them a shorter storage life. They are considered a seasonal treat, to be enjoyed before the new year. Most varieties have 8-12 large cloves in a single layer around the stem.

Rocomboles also produce nice double-coiled scapes, a late spring favorite with chefs and at markets. Harvest is early and should be timely to prevent the wrapper skins from splitting.

German Red

Spanish Roja

PURPLE STRIPES

Purple Stripes are beautiful garlics, with purple on both bulb and clove wrappers. They typically have 8-14 cloves per bulb, which are elongated, crescent-shaped and fairly easy-peel. Storage is better that Rocomboles but not as long as Porcelains. Their flavor is considered excellent, especially when roasted. Purple stripes also produce nice 3/4-curled scapes, for spring treats while waiting for the garlic to size up.

Glazed and Marbled Purple Stripes are subtypes, both with slightly less cloves per bulb than the main type. Marbled types tend to store longer than the standard.

Chesnok

Persian Star

Siberian - Marbled

ASIATICS

Asiatic types are an early maturing hardneck, usually producing a u-shaped scape and an extra-long beak, up to 18” long in some varieties. This type tends to be hot when raw, sometimes amazingly so. They typically have 6-10 cloves per bulb, with thick wrappers, and white bulb wrappers.

This type matures very early and must be harvested timely to prevent the bulb wrappers from splitting.

Korean

Asian Tempest

Pyong Vang

Pescadero

Aglio Rosso, aka. Rosso Di Sulmona