Ontario-grown Garlic
Grown with love by your farmers Mel & Cyn in the Kawartha Lakes, utilizing ecological farming methods and no pesticides.
Many thanks for the garlic wisdom shared by Daniel Hoffman of The Cutting Veg and for the seed garlic that started us off. We are equally grateful for the support and partnership of Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat of Russet House Farm for lending us use of their land and their watchful eye on our crop!
Varieties available for 2024
Limited quantities, while supplies last!
Rose de Lautrec
A hard-necked French variety with
7-10 beautiful pink cloves.
Ukrainian
A hard-neck garlic with hot and spicy flavour. 7-10 cloves.
Guatemalan
A hard-neck with rich flavour and uniform bulbs. Great for roasting!
Czech
This hard-neck garlic has 6-10 cloves. Though hot if eaten raw, it is sweet and mild when cooked.
Sicilian
A soft-necked garlic with mild flavour. Produces 10-14 cloves which makes it a great choice if you’d like to grow your own. Outstanding storability.
Tibetan
Choose this one if you want garlic that is hot and fiery. This hard-necked garlic has excellent storability.
Transylvanian
A soft-necked garlic that produces a large number of cloves (10-14). Hot and sharp flavour.
Russian
A hard-necked garlic that produces 3-6 larger cloves, which means less peeling! Mild, full flavour.
Polish
A hard-necked garlic with a hot, rich flavour. Produces 3-6 cloves.
Charlie's Sicilian
A hard-necked garlic with
medium punch. Produces big bulbs and cloves.
Former Yugoslavian
Medium strength and naturally sweeter flavour. Excellent storability.
Korean
A hard-necked garlic of medium strength and excellent storability. Long fat cloves with a flavour that hits the roof of the mouth.
Persian
A hard-necked garlic with outstanding storability. Spicy flavour. One bulb contains 7-10 cloves, each with red stripes.
Pricing
To order, email Melodie at melodie.ng@rogers.com with your desired quantity and variety.
Order by the bulb, or order a variety pack to try seven types!
Local pick-up or delivery can be arranged within the GTA; sorry no shipping available!
Variety Pack - $20 for 7 different varieties that we will curate for you!
Single bulbs - $3/bulb
Depending on availability, two small bulbs may be substituted for a large bulb.
A note about the pricing…
You may be wondering why these prices are higher than what you’d find in the grocery store. Please consider that with the time, transportation costs and labour, even at these prices we are doing this as a labour of love, not for profit! Within our current food system, prices do not reflect the labour required to care well for land and tend crops. You may find cheaper imported garlic in stores, but these products may have required the use of fumigation or pesticides that are harmful to Earth as well as potentially to one’s health. They may have also required low production costs. Much of the global agricultural system relies on cheap labour, which often means taking advantage of farm workers, particularly those who are migrants.
Please considering supporting farmers with a dignified exchange for the provision of locally grown, pesticide-free, and incredibly tasty produce. Join us in striving for farming practices that care for the health of the Earth!
What’s the difference between hardneck and softneck garlic?
Hardneck garlics can be identified by the flowering stock that it produces, called a scape. These can be harvested in the summer and eaten fresh (grilling scapes on the BBQ or turning them into pesto are tasty options!) The scape starts at the base of the garlic bulb and makes for a stiffer stock, or “neck.” Softneck garlic does not produce a scape and keeps a soft and flexible neck.
Which is better? It’s all a matter of preference of uses and growing conditions. The flexibility of softnecks means that these garlic bulbs can be braided. They also tend to store longer than hardneck varieties because the bulb skins are much tighter at the neck, keeping moisture inside the bulbs and keeping diseases out. Hardneck varieties tend to be more winter hardy and do better in colder climates, whereas softnecks prefer warmer climates.
Looking at bulbs from the outside, it’s hard to tell which are hardneck and which are softneck. But cracking them open will reveal a hard core at the centre of a hardneck, which is lacking in a softneck. You will also find that softnecks have cloves of different sizes, not just a single row as hardnecks do. Hardnecks more closely resemble wild garlics that were harvested by humans thousands of years ago… and they also tend to peel more easily! Apparently hardnecks are more flavourful than softnecks… but we will leave that to you to decide!