About 8 years ago, we started growing garlic on a whim. We thought we might like to try growing something to sell and take a crack at hobby farming. So we researched what crop was easiest to grow and brought in decent revenue. Garlic rose, pun intended, to the top of the list, and our adventure began!
What I did not expect was the connection people feel to it, the community that grows around it, and that getting down to the earth, near the plants, would be so restorative.
We started with 600 bulbs, or 1100 seed cloves, the very first year. My farming father-in-law thought we were a little overambitious to start with that many, but we did, and the crop turned out fantastically! Now, what to do with 1100 garlic bulbs? This is where garlic gets fun. What you don't sell, you plant, and next year's crop gets bigger! We sold a modest amount that year to a restaurant and some other garlic growers.
Fast forward a few years, and we had grown the number of garlic plants to 8,000! One of the first questions everyone asks about that is, "How much land does that take?" Surprisingly little, less than a quarter acre. Of course, you need about 4 times that if you are going to properly rotate your crop over the next 4 years.
We keep the largest bulbs and sell the rest. Each bulb sells for around $2.00, so after a few years, you can make a little pocket money without too much trouble. The great thing about garlic is how easy it is to grow. We didn't even live in the same state with our garlic for the first few years! That's how low-maintenance it can be to grow.
We've cut back some over the last couple of years, since 8,000 started to feel a bit much. Now we grow enough to sell at the annual Minnesota Garlic Festival and have enough left over to seed next year's crop. The festival is a sell-out every year and is such a fun event, filled with other growers to get to know, as well as a huge number of people coming to learn how to grow. We spend so much time chatting with people and giving pointers and tips that the day goes by super-fast!
The next question we get asked a lot is, "You can grow garlic in Minnesota?" Yes, in fact, as a bulb it needs that cold stratification over winter to sprout in the spring. Minnesota succeeds there without fail! We grow a variety called Music, which can reach a bulb size of 3.5 inches or more! It's our favorite garlic to grow because its mild flavor enhances any dish you cook. People often ask me what I put in the dishes I make with it, and they are always surprised to learn that it is the garlic that makes them so delicious.
In early summer, the Music and other hardneck varieties sprout a flower called a scape. These turn into around 50 to 100 little mini cloves if you leave them to grow. But most growers take them off to send energy back down into the bulb underground. We've found that trimming them off after they curl around once makes the biggest difference in the garlic bulb size at harvest. The second-biggest difference in reaching a large bulb size is keeping them weed-free. But if you are patient and want to really expand your garlic patch in a couple of years, you can let the scapes grow and harvest them, and each plant will multiply into 50-plus garlic plants. The trick here is that it takes two seasons to grow one of these into a full bulb. Now you know why most growers take another route! Beyond that, scapes are another sellable item as they taste great and make a mean pesto!
Gardening and growing food might be one of the most relaxing, healthy, communal, and energizing things a person can do. It gets you outside, gets you talking to strangers at festivals, and somehow makes the rest of life feel a little more manageable. It's exactly the kind of thing that makes life full.
That's also a big part of why we started Ripple Collective. We want people to have the time and space to participate fully in all the good things life has to offer. And growing something with your hands alongside other people is one of the best examples we know. Our little 10-acre farm in Kingston is where we are starting to bring that to life through retreats, shared experiences, and the kind of conversations that seem to happen naturally when people are working together outdoors.
Peace starts somewhere small. For us, it started with garlic.