Nature’s Underground Pharmacy
It All Comes Up…Garlic
When we moved to Vermont, we knew we wanted dairy animals but we also wanted to grow something. After researching and much rumination, garlic was our crop of choice. At the time, we knew of the many human health benefits from garlic but we were soon to discover the animal health benefits as well. This underground crop really is nature’s underground pharmacy!
Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.
Hippocrates
Garlic has always been known for its medicinal properties but the flavor it provides to many of our dishes make it easy to forget its health benefits. Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, would actually prescribe garlic to resolve medical aliments. All of this in 400 BC!
As we started to learn develop our farming practices, the health of our herd became a number one priority for us. Because we allow our animals to graze whenever weather allows, parasites can become an issue in the summer. Garlic is an (organic) weapon against parasite cycles, and allows us to graze intensively without use of chemical dewormers that can pass into the milk.
With all that we have learned, our garlic now serves 3 purposes at Ghost Dog Dairy. The FIRST is to provide the highest quality of organic garlic to our customers, SECOND is to feed our animals to keep their health in tip top shape, and THIRD is to compliment the grasses, legumes and herbs that ultimately create the milk produced for Farm Dog Formula.
We cure our Music garlic with full stems on, which we have found enhances their storage time. The large bulbs and cloves adapted well to our hill country soils. All our garlic is derived from the same original seed crop planted in 2016. Each season we save bulbs to replant. Like the people up here, our bulbs are cold tolerant and put down deep roots in the Fall. They produce a hardy bulb with 4-6 large cloves and throw off a magnificent and tasty scape in the Spring. Music garlic is spicy when served raw but milder and sweeter when roasted! It peels easy and stores well.
Try Our Garlic
We package our garlic bulbs by the pound and ship them directly to your door! Plant them or eat them, it’s up to you! Each clove you plant will turn into a delicious bulb and is a great addition to your garden or farm. Remember, the quality and source of your garlic greatly affects its’ beneficial health properties.
Garlic Planting and Harvest
We plant our bulbs into a live cover crop of oats in late October. The oats die over the winter providing a living mulch. Often, the young garlic shoots are already growing up into the snow as it recedes in April. In June we harvest scapes (the flower of the garlic) to be used fresh in our goat and pork sausage. With the help of many friends, we are able to get our crop in and drying by the end of July. About 6 weeks later, we start processing the garlic and separating each bulbs for sale and for feeding to goats. Thank you to all our friends and family who helped with the harvest over the years!
