Taste, image and lifestyle all come into play when thinking about garlic. Garlic can take many forms, but it always makes the food you pair it with more delicious. Stephen Chamberlain, owners of Duchess Farm in Castleton, and his partner Beth Palmer grow garlic as well as many other vegetables. This is their second year attending Garlic Town USA in Bennington over Labor Day weekend, with the goal of understanding not only garlic's potential, but also the journey it takes to get to your table.
Their life is about balance, working the land a few miles away and sitting at their home with a barn and greenhouse, drying garlic and onions outside. Stephen talks about the beginnings: “The farm itself started in 1986 and we've been doing it ever since, almost 40 years.”
Garlic, he says, wasn't originally in the plans when he started the business because it required a very specific variety to grow. “It's not like ordering it at all,” he adds. “I guess you could order it from a seed catalog, just like you would order tomato or lettuce seeds.” But with garlic, he says, it's a little different because you have to buy seedlings. The first garlic harvest came maybe five to 10 years after the first farm.
Stephen grew up in Buffalo and went to college in Binghamton, graduating with a degree in German and French languages. During college, he went to Virginia one summer to work on a farm owned by several families close to his. “By the end of the summer, I loved it so much that I took the fall semester off college to work there.” He says that by October of that year, he knew in his heart that farming was all he wanted to do for the rest of his life. “It was just fun. That was 1976.”
Stephen came to Central Vermont because his first job after college was at Spring Lake Ranch in Shrewsbury, just south of Rutland. “It was a mix of farming and working with people with disabilities. It was a community of about 40 to 50 people, and we grew a lot of our own food. It was a really great learning experience for me.”
Stephen was in Spring Lake for three years, on the other side of the county from where he is now. “But I noticed that tomatoes and melons don't grow like they do in Virginia,” he continues. But when you go to the other side of the county (where Castleton is), the growing season is almost a month longer, he continues. “I was really surprised, and part of it has to do with (climate change).” The difference, he says, is that this part of the county is in what's known as the “Banana Belt.” “It's just different, because at higher elevations it's a lot drier. We don't get as much rain here.”
Part of the reason, according to both Beth and Stephen, is that the area is somewhat protected. “It's open land, but it's not open on all sides, which can be a good thing,” Stephen explains. One advantage, he continues, is that harvests come a little earlier than when he was working south of Rutland. When asked what he likes about his current farm, he said: “It's great land. It's good land. The people I rent from are really trustworthy and my experiences with them have been really good. Plus, I'm on a lease, so there's a certain amount of security.”
Originally, the land he now farms was a seventh-generation dairy farm. It's been farmed since the late 1700s. When Stephen first got there, the owner gave him the option of over 200 acres. “But for me, there was only one option, and that was where I am now, because there's a stream nearby that I can irrigate. Plus, where I live the soil is a little lighter, so it's just right for what I do.”
He says there are several hills, but the lowest one is next to a stream. “We used the upper fields for irrigation, but it takes too much energy to get water up a steep hill.” He discovered that garlic is what will be planted in the top field. Anything he grows requires some sort of fencing, he continues. “I don't live there and the deer could really wipe us out. Plus, I don't patrol it day and night, and I don't want to.”
The irony is, of course, that these animals (including woodchucks) hate garlic. “That’s the great thing,” laughs Stephen. Another thing he now appreciates even more about garlic is that mulching actually helps a lot with moisture retention compared to traditional irrigation. “We mulch very thickly using a machine.”
In terms of the growing season, he explains that garlic must remain in the ground for eight to nine months of the year, and as a result, the soil must be extremely well-drained: garlic cannot be planted in wet depressions or clay soils, and if planted in the upper fields, there is no risk of flooding.
Another benefit of growing garlic is that it only needs to be rotated every four years, but with other cover crops growing on the property, there is space for rotation. Because garlic and onions are in the same family, Stephen tends to grow garlic and onions close together.
Stephen found the variety he's currently growing – which he'll be selling at Garlic Town USA – from a local grower named Ray Pratt of Danby. It was a German Hardy variety. “He grew it near the Smokey House and had this beautiful garlic that he showed me. I've known him and his wife for years.” Pratt told Stephen he was getting out of the business and offered to sell the variety. Stephen said he'd tried one or two other varieties, including Soft Neck, but after getting the German Hardy, he saw no reason to grow anything else. “It worked really well for us and was very well received. Everyone had great compliments on it.”
The feedback from people who have tried their garlic is that it tastes amazing. Gardening enthusiasts also love the large cloves that make it delicious. Steven says that many people come to buy their garlic every year. He says that they were just lucky to get this particular variety. “We bought a variety that was growing really well and then we expanded and grew more and more of the same variety.”
As for attending Garlic Town USA, Beth and Steven say they had never been to a garlic festival before. “We walked in last year without actually seeing the Garlic Festival grounds,” Steven explains. “It was amazing.” They'd heard good things about it, so they were expecting a decent festival. “The festival started at 9 or 10 a.m., and there was a gate there,” Steven recalls. “When the gates opened, it was like a ton of people just walked through. I was blown away, to be honest.”
Beth submitted her application first and was amazed at how quickly she got a response. According to Steven, all they really had to bring last year was garlic seeds. “We brought about 300 pounds of garlic seeds and some chilli peppers,” he says, and they sold about $50 for the chillies and a ton of the garlic. “We thought, 'Wow, this is amazing,' and there was a lot of enthusiasm.”
With a new festival coming up next week, Beth and Stephen say they're approaching their business with a new perspective. “We're hoping to scale back some of our business so we can devote more time to garlic,” Stephen explains. “Beth makes beautiful dried garlic and has a following, but she's not always sure what she can do. There's only so much she can do, but we feel we can do more.”
Stephen says they had been talking about developing dried garlic chips for a long time. Initially, they tried simple slices. They also tried a powder. “The powder is obviously more convenient for customers, because they can just pour it on. But after a few months, we realized that the dried chips kept the pungent flavor.”
Beth adds: “They're like garlic chips. Some people, including one of my friends, eat them like potato chips. My husband isn't happy about that (lol), but the flavour remains.” Beth says the dehydrated slices can be mashed by hand or added to garlic bread. “It rehydrates them. You can also add them to soups and sauces while cooking.” Beth says she's got it down to a bit of a science, but it's time-consuming. “I'd probably need to scale up with a dehydrator, which is what's holding me back. I can peel and slice loads of garlic but I only have one dehydrator so I was looking into other, more fancier dehydrators.”
This product is definitely a standout addition to Garlic Town USA's regular German Hardy Garlic, but if demand exceeds supply, it will be available to order through their website.
With these and other products available, it's all a matter of time for the couple to decide what to bring to the festival in particular. “We think we'll sell a lot of seed garlic,” Stephen continues. “The question is, will we have time to bring dried garlic slices?” They reassure you can order them online once they're out of stock (though they may be backordered). The key with dried garlic slices, Stephen explains, is that they only work if stored in chip form; if you crush them after buying them, they won't last as long flavor-wise.
Aside from the garlic outlay, they also hold a regular share day on Tuesdays for Castleton investors, as well as a retail barn day on Fridays. “We don't have displays in the barn,” Beth explains, “but you can order online and come pick it up on Friday from 4-6pm.” On Wednesday nights, she says, they send out an email blast of all their stock. Duchess Farm runs on the Square platform, which makes payments easy.
Garlic looks like it will be a good option going forward for Beth and Steven. “Garlic has a stable shelf life,” Steven explains. “And onions to an extent too.” He'd also like to improve garlic storage over winter. As for the process, Steven explains that garlic is harvested in early July. If it's not taken out of the ground by the end of July, he says, it will start to rot. They keep a lot of their garlic in the barn, which is their main drying space. They also use a greenhouse, but he explains that the greenhouse tends to be a little more humid.
Garlic can survive freezing temperatures, so you can literally leave it there until you're ready to sell it.
They plant garlic again in early to mid-November before the ground freezes. But they also harvest many of their other crops at this time of year: tons of carrots, tons of beets, radishes, and other vegetables. But these days they have transplanters available, and they can plant a garlic crop in a day. “Of course, there's a lot of preparation that goes before that: soil preparation, planting a cover crop, soil testing, and proper fertilization.” Stephen also explains that they have to set aside 400 pounds of garlic from the previous season to plant. At the end of summer, before planting season, they cut the garlic to see how many pounds are left.
The math is simple, he says: “We plant 400 pounds, and our garlic averages five cloves per bulb, so that gives us a total yield of 2,000 pounds of garlic. So we'll sell 1,600.” He says that what used to be four cloves per bulb is now trending toward five cloves, “and I see it trending toward maybe six. If that happens, we'll be growing over 2,000 pounds.”
But the business of garlic and farming is always evolving. Beth explains, “We change and pivot when necessary. Every year we're always brainstorming and thinking about what we want to change. What do we want to grow more of? Every year we're always tweaking, always changing.” And in an ideal world, it seems like they'd be producing even more garlic.
To learn more about Dutchess Farm or to check availability of their produce or garlic (including dried garlic slices/chips), visit Dutchessfarmvt.com
Also, be sure to check out Garlic Town USA in downtown Bennington on Saturday, August 31 (Labor Day weekend). For more information, visit garlictownusa.com.
