Garlic, Onions & Shallots
Garlic 2021
Garlic is one of our favorite crops — both to grow and to eat. We grow primarily stiff-neck varieties. We have a Dancing Bear Farm Mix, which we've saved and grown for over thirty years. We also grow several individual varieties including our very popular variety, Asian Fire. See below for this years updated list.
Garlic is one crop we can ship. We sell both table garlic and seed garlic. For the table, or eating garlic, we have two catagoies: Premium sized and Run of the Field. Premium sized are extra large, beautiful bulbs, good for roasting or just looking at. Of course a lot of people buy these for planting too. That's up to you. They go for $2.50 a piece and are best sellers at the Garlic Festivals. Run of the Field is mostly medium sized with some small, cleaned but not obsessed over. That goes for $12.00 per pound. Seed Garlic is offered in mesh bags of 50 cloves, all seperated and hand checked. Each bag is labled with variety and brief growing instructions and sells for $10.00 per bag. Please email us for more information.
You can usually find us at the North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival in Orange, Mass, and, on Labor Day weekend, at the Southern Vermont Garlic and Herb Festival (now called Garlic Town) in Bennington, Vermont. This year however, the North Quabbin has been canceled and we'll be unable to attend the Bennington Garlic Town, due to a broken leg. As I said before, garlic ships well. We use the USPS flat rates boxes of the appropreate size. Pricing to come soon.
Garlic Varieties 2021
Our varieties this year are: Dancing Bear Mix (includes Siberian Red; German Hardy; Chesnook Red; Georgia Crystal; Romainian Red and probably others). Asian Fire; Bogatyr; Phillips; Tibetan; China Pink and an unknown Softneck.Taste of garlic is very subjective so I hesitate to go into it. Let me say this about it. We like a garlic that makes itself know but does not overpower. It should be hot or spicy when raw and sweeten when cooked. It should last well into the winter and be easy to peel. We think you will find all these varieties fill the bill.
Onions 2021
We grow yellow and red onions. Our favorite yellow is the excellent keeper, Copra, a variety that's not easy to find, and is a favorite of our restaurant chefs. For red onions, we like Redwing. They keep well, just not as long as the Copras. At this writing they are still in the field. Harvest will start next week and after a couple weeks curing, they will get clipped and cleaned and be ready for storage
Shallots 2021
This year we have just the french red shallots. At this writing they are still in the field, looking to be harvested in the next week or two. In our cooking, we use shallots in reduction sauces and for carmelizing. (Yum!)
