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We support the slow food movement. It takes a whole 9 months to hand grow a perfectly flavorful bulb of gourmet culinary cooking garlic or hardneck seed garlic. Supporting practices that encourage the preservation of heirloom varieties is important to us and slow food just tastes better!
Garlic Research
Grey Duck Garlic has a research grant from the Organic Farming Research Foundation. Our grant ‘Effectiveness and economic impact of weed control systems in organic garlic production’ began in the summer/fall of 2008.
We are sure that you will be happy with our high quality organic seed garlic and cooking garlic. If you are not satisfied with your order we will cheerfully replace your garlic order or refund the purchase price.
In mid-June we had a sudden hailstorm that coated the ground with white marbles. Nearby plants were flattened but the seed garlic remained standing tall.
Above: Susan holds some of the fruits of our labor. So far this garlic has survived snow, sleet, hail, frost, flooding (a rarity in our arid climate) and drought! Just like grapes grown in harsh climates make the best wine, garlic that survives our temperature extremes has an exquisite taste not equaled by ‘soft’ commercial garlic. Plants grown naturally in extreme climes produce more beneficial phytochemicals to help them survive.
Organic Garlic Report From 2008/2009 Season
In late July, Patty takes a break from harvesting garlic. After all the odd weather we were very pleased by the big beautiful bulbs we harvested.
Above: Susan stores 'raw' garlic in our 100 year old barn to cure for 6 weeks. Curing helps gives gourmet garlic its great taste. Our garlic is transported to the barn in a green nursery wagon.
Wonder what goes on in a year of growing hardneck garlic? Here is our garlic crop from last year in pictures!
The taste that inspires passion
We started the year with a flood in our garlic field! For some of you a flood may not be unexpected, but we live in a dry climate and had been getting between 12-16 inches of rain for the last several years. Our flood was caused by a record snowfall and quick melt.
Luckily, we have a lot of muscle available and were able to dig a trench and several deep holes to divert water off of the tender garlic sprouts.
Update: the worst flooded areas had a significant reduction in bulb size compared to the rest of the field. We still saved the plants though. Moral: don't plant garlic where rice should be growing.
Patty watches as the garlic grows. In our climate we see the first green sprouts in late Feb to early March. Garlic is fairly frost resistant but can be killed by a unexpected arctic blast.
We plant, weed and harvest by hand but some simple tools make our farming easier. Above: In June, Chris plows under our green cover crop, peas. Using a cover crop can help control weeds and add organic matter to the soil as green manure. Legumes, such as winter peas, also add nitrogen to the soil. On the picture to the left, Patty controls weeds around our plots with a rotortiller.
Above: Susan holds a scape.
To the left: Chris cuts off the scapes or seedheads of German Red garlic. Each type of hardneck garlic has a different flower and scape. German Reds have a large scape with bigger bulblets.