WHEN IS GARLIC AVAILABLE?

February to May is the best time to order King Island Garlic ready to plant your garlic garden in autumn.

Garlic is a winter crop, planted from April to early July depending on variety, with harvest of latest varieties completed around New Year.

Once harvested, bulbs need to dry or 'cure' and be trimmed, cleaned, sorted, labelled and stored and next year's propagation stock selected. Once we know what we have to sell, a price list is compiled and enquiries received through the year will be processed. Apologies if your enquiry is not answered immediately as other farm work keeps me busy so thank you for your patience.

Success of crops can vary widely from year to year, so bulbs sizes vary and some varieties may not always be available. 

​​Tip: smaller bulbs of any particular variety will generally last longer than large ones of the same variety, when stored well.

​Request February price list 
TURBAN is the early garlic group, first harvested, first planted and shortest storing (April/May). They come in purple, white or pink varieties. Although April planting gives the biggest Turbans, these can still be planted by June for an early but small harvest in November in time to braid for Christmas, or to save for a head start on your Turban planting next April. Turbans produce the most succulent fresh scapes to pick and eat in springtime.

Other short-storing but better flavoured varieties are the PURPLE STRIPE GROUP and intriguing 
ROCAMBOLE 'serpent garlic' for robust cloves, rich flavour and unique triple coil scapes. These will still do OK when planted before Winter Solstice (June 21st). 
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CREOLE is the group for the most superb flavour and long storage. Smaller bulbs can keep
 exceptionally well through the Australian 'garlic gap'.

May/June planting has given me great results with ARTICHOKE, MIDDLE EASTERN and PORCELAIN garlic for big bulbs and big cloves which store till around August.

Generally smaller, my largest ever SILVERSKINS were planted in the first half of July. Fiery flavoured, the soft necks can be braided to store exceptionally well into the later half of the year when Australian garlic is unavailable.

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Guarantee your next year's garlic crop - label your varieties, store in a dry place and save a few bubs to replant next season. 

Scapes

A scape is the stalk or 'flower' stem that some garlic types may produce in spring and early summer. While technically not always a flower, the 'topsets' or umbils contain miniature cloves known as bulbils. To maximise bulb size, snap off scapes when they appear to enjoy in the kitchen, or leave on to produce umbils to multiply your crop next season.