This year also the prices went up a lot on everything, and its reflected in my prices. Looking at garlic prices around the country, average price that I came across was $35/lb; so $25-30 price range is a bargain.
Little about how I grow: Beyond Sustainable Life brings high quality, nutrient dense produce to Palouse area.
Mainly I grow garlic and tomatoes, but any other seasonal vegetables too.
I have one variety of garlic, the original garlic came from Ukraine many years ago, and I have been growing it for 9 years now (my mother was growing it many years prior to that). The closest variety I can identify it with is Bogatyr - the most desirable gourmet garlic on the market. On the flavor/spiciness scale, its about 8 (0-10 scale, 10 being the hottest). Use for food as well for seed.
Bogatyr garlic is Marble Purple Stripe garlic cultivar, also known as Russian Penicillin. It is hardneck variety that is beautiful in form and true garlic flavor - known for its fiery, raw heat. Bogatyr garlic also has high allicin content, which makes it great for health benefits. This garlic yields the largest bulbs of all the hardneck and striped garlic cultivars. The outside skin is white to white-purple. As you peel away the outer skins, more and more purple striping shows up and they become almost solid purple by the time you get down to the cloves. The clove skins are dark brown with purple streaks that are smooth and shiny. The bulb yealds on average 5 cloves per garlic bulb, but could have 2-9 cloves. It thrives in cold winter climates but can also grow in warm winter climates. It also has a notably longer shelf life than other marbled purple stripe garlic varieties; store in cool (55°-70°F), dark and dry place for up to 8-10 months.
I grow all sizes (diameter):
Small - less than 1.5"
Medium - 1.5" to 2"
Large - 2" to 2.5"
Extra Large - 2.5" to 3", hard to grow
Jumbo - 3" and up, up to 8oz, even more harder to grow
To grow garlic (and all other vegetables/fruits), I use best agricultural practices, that go beyond standard Organic practices and beyond any conventional practices, combined. No "cides" of any kind - pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc. I start with doing comprehensive soil test analysis that costs $120 per sample and doing several soil tests per year. Based on soil test analysis, I add necessary minerals and beneficial microorganisms, that comply with organic standards and go beyond that, and no conventional nitrogen fertilizers. Then, throughout the growing season, sea water minerals, seaweed extract, compost teas and lightning water (ozone treated water), were applied to growing crop. It is not an easy task nor a cheap one. It is also beyond regenerative farming practices, because not all regenerative farmers look into soil mineral balance; as well, its not only about soil mineral content - everything needs to be accounted, in a wholesome way. To grow extra large to jumbo size garlic, there is another caveat that makes it expensive to grow - it is that I loose at least 10% of crop to dead end genes. To explain shortly what I call dead end genes, to grow jumbo garlic, you take seed from garlic scape, plant it, two years later you get a bulb of garlic, on the third year you take a clove of that bulb plant and get large bulb the fourth year, then again you take a clove of the large bulb and on the fifth year get an extra large bulb, on the sixth year you take a clove from the extra large bulb and get a jumbo bulb, but at least 10% (this year 2024, it was about 28%) of those cloves do not produce anything, and sometimes it may occur on the fifth year.
• Growing tastiest, most nutrient dense, most healing foods ever!
• Nurturing Life – not death (no roundup, chemicals, etc.)
• Going beyond best practices of conventional and Organic agriculture.
• Regenerative farming practices.
• Restoring complete balanced fertility to the soil.
• Balanced and restored fertile soil grows exceptionally nutrient rich foods that have superior flavor and extended shelf life; and nutrient rich foods create health.
• Making habitat for all life forms – each life form has it’s place and purpose.
• Based on William A. Albrecht, Ph.D. - CEC model,
Dr.Elaine Ingham – soil foodweb, and others.
• Beyond Sustainable is overflowing abundance.
• You are what you eat – You are what you think.