Rudy’s Roots

You can’t win ‘em all 🫣🫠 🍅

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When it’s too hot to work in the greenhouse, we work in the woods. We planted a couple hundred oak and maple seedlings this week!

In the spring of 2022, two things happened: 1) my husband ordered our first Keene garlic order, and 2) I started attending a 9 month long Organic Farmer Training program at a local university.

That spring, we laid the plastic fabric, soaker hoses on timers, and hired some young girls who were happy to plant garlic for the first time. Fast forward a few months paired with watering and an unventilated hoop house, we didn't have much of a harvest.

By the fall of 2022, I had learned so much about planting, harvesting and curing garlic at school and felt even more confident with our Keene order. We planted our fall harvest and come 2023 we were very pleased with the outcome. So pleased that we said we would be happy growing large amounts of garlic.

For 2024, we planted a little over 700 bulbs, 75% of them from our Keene harvest and the remaining from a family member who has been growing organic garlic for 20+ years. We also purchased the fertilizer and applied 2 applications to one of our rows. The other row of garlic we did not apply fertilizer and wanted to show the difference in growth. Not only was the unfertilized garlic smaller, some didn’t even sprout.

So, from two small farmers in Michigan going through the organic process, we want to thank those who make quality products, like Keene. Growing Keene has given us the confidence we can do it too.