You might have noticed that we are not selling garlic in our new 2022 Organic Seed Catalog and it is listed as Unavailable for 2022 on our website. We are taking this strategic break to try and address some underlying issues that have made offering high quality, organic seed garlic challenging. Some of these issues include:
  • Crop Failures
    • Seed garlic is a living, farmed agricultural product. Unforeseen variables during the growth of the seed crop can lead to partial and total crop failures. For this reason, it is very common to receive less than we expected to.
  • Crop Purity
    • Sometimes when we bring garlic in, we find at the time of delivery that the variety is not true to type. We do not send this garlic to our growers as it would not perform as expected.
  • Pests, Mites and Nematodes 
    • We test all garlic seed for pests and pathogens that pose threats to your farms and gardens. Infected garlic is culled, reducing available inventory.
  • Fungus and Mold
    • Whether colonization occurs during the growth of the seed or postharvest in storage, garlic delivered with fungus and/or mold does not pass our high Quality Control standards and is culled.
  • Overall Supply Constraints 
    • As an organic seed company, we can only source garlic seed from certified organic seed growers and this limits how much garlic we can hope to contract in any given season.
  • Timely Communications
    • We are often learning about crop failures or identifying issues with delivered seed just ahead of garlic planting season and we can struggle to have clear information in time for customers’ needs. 
We take very seriously our obligation to deliver on what we promise and organic seed garlic strains our ability to do that. Organic garlic is difficult, and we know it is an important part of your farms and gardens. We are going to be taking some time to re-think how we source it, how much we can get, and how we get it to you. It may take a few years and we hope to be back offering it with new and improved processes and systems as soon as we can. In the meantime, we thank you for your continued support of our organic seed company. What is important to the success of your farms and gardens is equally important to us, and we are dedicated to working on and continually adapting our systems to ensure our growers receive the quality, consistency and customer service necessary for a bountiful growing season.