It can be grown anywhere from Cairns to Hobart, yet most of the garlic found in supermarkets is imported. RICK BAYNE spoke with grower Joel White about the challenging crop and why it is worth it.
Joel White wasn’t a big fan of supermarket garlic until he started growing it himself.
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Now the beef farmer and budding garlic grower from Arawata in South Gippsland is fully converted, so much so that he is helping the Australian industry to grow.
“I wasn’t a big fan because we used to buy supermarket garlic from China,” he said.
“Australian garlic is absolutely wonderful. You would never buy imported supermarket garlic after tasting this … it’s just so beautiful.”
Joel is on the board of the Australian Garlic Industry Association and president of the South Gippsland Garlic Festival, where his wife Stephanie Anderton takes on marketing duties in the lead-up to the March 8 event.
His move into garlic sprung from a desire for diversity.
“We have a beef cattle farm but wanted to do more so we didn’t rely on just one thing,” Joel said.
“I looked around and saw people growing garlic, so obviously it grows here, so we investigated.”
He found a local industry ripe for growth, with Australian supermarkets dominated by imported product.
“I found it can grow anywhere, from Cairns to Hobart, with tropical soft-necked varieties in Queensland, while in cooler climates we grow a hard-necked garlic.”
Joel dedicates less than a hectare of his farm to garlic, and coming up to his seventh year of growing he’s still learning the tricks of the trade.
“Garlic is a very challenging crop to grow,” he said.
“It takes seven months so you only get one crack at it a year.”
Last year Joel tried to double production as part of an effort to reach 45,000 plants, the figure considered optimal for his area dedicated to garlic.
Things didn’t go to plan.
“We were 14,000 plants but finished up with 7000,” Joel admitted.
“The product itself is wonderful, but it’s challenging to grow and you’ve got Mother Nature to deal with and how the plant reacts to that. A lot of the varieties we grow are not considered commercial because they’re really difficult to grow.”
Joel had hoped to reach commercial status in three years, but concedes the ‘University of Garlic’ involves a lot of learning and trial and error.
He usually tries up to 10 varieties to find which work best but has reduced that to about six, while still adding different species each year.
“You keep your own seed stock and some of your best garlic aside to plant for the next year so it will adapt to the soils and environmental conditions,” he said.
“For one bulb of garlic, you should get a multiplier effect of between six and 10 back, but then there are the environmental issues.”
Joel doesn’t use chemical fertilisers or herbicides and says preparing the field is key to success.
“This year I’ll just do it better and hope to find a nutrient we may have been lacking, such as phosphorous or sulphur,” he said.
Joel uses animals as part of his field preparations. He crash grazes the site before preparing the new plant bed and that’s where some of his 200 black Angus cattle come in handy.
“We lock the cattle in there and they decimate it and poop and pee over it so you get that natural fertiliser boost,” he said.
“Even broadacre croppers are starting to realise the benefits of grazing animals.”
Most garlic growers start planting in March, but Joel has no watering infrastructure so has to wait for the autumn break.
“Once the rain starts in autumn, we start prepping our field, which takes about a month, and then we plant May-June,” he said.
“It grows during our wet season and we harvest in December-January. That gives the plant the maximum benefit of water during its dormancy so it can build up a lot of energy.”
Garlic beds have to be rotated every year. Joel has set aside enough land to do a 45,000-plant rotation over three years, but doesn’t want to expand into more pasture land.
Any produce that is small or not suitable for seed is now being skinned by a new machine and turned into a minced or sliced garlic to sell.
Joel has also introduced matting to protect the seed bank and reduce weeds.
“We used to use a machine to lay it, which meant only one use, but this year we tried pegging so we can re-use that matting next year,” he said.
“We learn something new each year about getting the field bed right.”
Big supporters of niche growers, Joel and Stephanie have opened a shop in Korumburra, the Burra Pantry and Larder, to showcase local producers.
“You drive past these lovely farms every day but you don’t know where to buy their stuff, so a shop is a good way to get things out there,” Joel said.
Joel describes garlic farming as a journey of learning, and he hopes the broader Australian community gets to know more about their local garlic.
“It’s nice to make a fabulous product that you know other people will enjoy,” he said.
The health benefits of garlic have been written about for centuries and Joel wants the industry to verify and promote those claims.
While the notorious garlic breath is always going to be there, Joel is confident the taste and health benefits outweigh any negatives.
“The smell is always going to be there and it’s a very pungent flavour raw,” he said.
“We’ve done markets and had people try raw garlic and find it’s really hot.”
Never content to go with the flow, Joel hopes to introduce a new variety to his crop that “will blow your head off”.
DNA writer