Plant garlic once, get paid twice

If I had to name one crop for a new grower, it would be garlic. It is not hard to grow if you follow the procedure, you replant your own seed, the margin is good, and it sells twice: scapes in June, bulbs in July. Then it keeps, so you sell it all year until the next harvest comes in. For a small farm that wants to be profitable, that is a gift.

One planting, two harvests

In mid-June, the garlic sends up its scapes. They are ready when they make one or two turns, and we snap them two or three times a week for about three weeks. Removing them makes the plant put its energy into a bigger bulb, and the scapes go to market. The first harvest improves the second.

From early July, we sell some garlic fresh. In the third week of July, we pull the rest and cure it for three to four weeks. A well-cured bulb keeps six to eight months or longer, and many customers want some as winter stock, so we keep selling until the next harvest. Garlic does take room: it holds its beds from October to July, and it gets a plot of its own in our rotation. But grow nice garlic of good size and you will have no trouble selling it. Organic, local garlic sells at a good price at market, and the margin makes that space worth it.

Follow the procedure and it pays you back

Garlic is a heavy feeder: we spread about five wheelbarrows of compost per bed in the fall. Wait four years before bringing garlic, or any crop of the onion family, back to the same bed. It likes a steady supply of water, above all while the bulb is swelling.

The best seed is your own. Before selling a single bulb, set aside the ones whose cloves have the best balance of number and size, about 13 lb (6 kg) per 100 ft (30 m) bed. That is seed you rarely need to buy again. But never plant cloves that might carry a fungal disease.

We grow hardneck garlic, more flavorful and a better keeper than softneck, and here in southern Quebec, Canada, we plant it in the third week of October so the cloves grow good roots before winter. The right week depends on your region, so ask the growers around you. Three rows per bed, 10 in (25 cm) apart and 5.5 in (14 cm) in the row, pointy side up in holes about 2.5 in (6 cm) deep. Two people plant face to face, moving up the aisle. Then cover the bed with at least 6 in (15 cm) of weed-free straw: it keeps the weeds down and protects the soil's fertility over the winter.

Harvest and cure for the winter

Stop watering several weeks before harvest, then pull the bulbs on a sunny day. Harvest day is a big one: plan extra hands, a shady spot, sharp shears and enough crates, and count on about 35 lb (16 kg) of garlic an hour per person. Cure it away from the sun and above all the rain, with fans running at all times, for three to four weeks, until the outer skins are dry and crispy, the neck is tight and the center of the cut stem is hard. Stored between 57 and 64°F (14 and 18°C), your garlic keeps selling long after the last market.

A planting that crosses two seasons

Because garlic holds its beds from October to July, it has to be in the plan, or the next crop gets planned right on top of it. In Heirloom, we add it to the Game Plan of the season we plant it: two beds, planted in the third week of October, and Heirloom works out the first harvest for the following July.

The planting then follows you into the next season. On the Game Plan, turn on Show previous 6 months under Display options, and your fall garlic sits on the same timeline as the rest of the season. The Crop Map knows those beds are taken until the harvest, then frees them for a green manure or a fall crop. In our rotation, storage carrots usually follow it.

Garlic is special at every stage: the last crop we plant in the fall, the first to wake up in spring, a harvest that feels like a party, and a place in almost every meal.

-JM