OUR STORY
We started out as a hobby farm
Many years ago, Rob Campbell bought the farm as a hobby farm. He raised horses, a donkey, many cats, dogs and even a goat! The farm has also been growing and selling trees for many years. Located in beautiful Lethbridge County, it can be reached in just a short drive past Sunnyside Road north.
Rob Campbell is a journeyman Landscaper and Horticulturalist. His landscaping business, Yard Doctor, has been operating in Lethbridge for over 20 years. Campbell and Sons Garlic Farm is now a family run business. Rob and his sons Odin and Stone work the farm and help to grow the most amazing garlic you will ever taste.
Rob also grows pumpkins, squash, tomatoes, peppers, beets, carrots, onions and cucumbers. Rob also partners with other community farms and partners to bring in fresh preserves, artwork, hand made goods and more!
WHY GARLIC?
Garlic has been used all over the world for thousands of years. Records indicate that garlic was in use when the Giza pyramids were built, about 5,000 years ago.
Richard S. Rivlin wrote in the Journal of Nutrition that the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates (circa. 460-370 BC), known today as “the father of Western medicine,” prescribed garlic for a wide range of conditions and illnesses. Hippocrates promoted the use of garlic for treating respiratory problems, parasites, poor digestion, and fatigue.
The original Olympic athletes in Ancient Greece were given garlic – possibly the earliest example of “performance enhancing” agents used in sports.
From Ancient Egypt, garlic spread to the advanced ancient civilizations of the Indus Valley (Pakistan and western India today). From there, it made its way to China.
According to experts at Kew Gardens, England’s royal botanical center of excellence, the people of ancient India valued the therapeutic properties of garlic and also thought it to be an aphrodisiac. The upper classes avoided garlic because they despised its strong odor, while monks, “…widows, adolescents, and those who had taken up a vow or were fasting, could not eat garlic because of its stimulant quality.”
Throughout history in the Middle East, East Asia, and Nepal, garlic has been used to treat bronchitis, hypertension (high blood pressure), TB (tuberculosis), liver disorders, dysentery, flatulence, colic, intestinal worms, rheumatism, diabetes, and fevers.
The French, Spanish, and Portuguese introduced garlic to the New World.
Info courtesy of: www.medicalnewstoday.com
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT GARLIC SCAPES
What are garlic scapes?
Garlic scapes are the tender stem and flower bud of a hardneck garlic plant. (Hardneck garlic is the kind of garlic that typically grows in Canada and the northeastern U.S.) Scapes first grow straight out of the garlic bulb, then coil. When harvested, they look like long, curly green beans.
Garlic is one of the few plants with two harvests: garlic scapes are harvested in the late spring and early summer, and then the bulbs are harvested later in the summer. Harvesting the scapes is an integral part of garlic farming—if the scapes aren’t cut off, the plant expends its energy trying to grow its stem and flower, leaving the bulb small and flavourless. So, by eating garlic scapes, you’re doing your part in the garlic growing cycle.
What do they taste like?
Garlic scapes taste like a unique blend of onion, scallion and garlic. However, scapes are usually less fiery and have a fresher, “greener” taste than the actual garlic bulbs. The texture is similar to that of asparagus.
How are garlic scapes different from ramps?
Ramps, or wild leeks, can sometimes be confused with garlic scapes, since they also tend to be available in early spring (though generally earlier than scapes). However, ramps are their own plant (unlike scapes, which are the stem of the garlic plant) and taste like leeks and onion.
How do you store garlic scapes—and how long do they keep?
Garlic scapes keep very well in the crisper—they can last for up to two weeks. You can also chop them up and freeze them in plastic bags, which will preserve them for much longer.
WHY GARLIC?
ORGANIC, PESTICIDE FREE & FAMILY GROWN
What is hard necked garlic?
Hardneck varieties develop a long flowering stem, called a scape, which eventually develops tiny bulbils at its top end. Under ground, around this central flowering stem, is a single row of cloves wrapped together in a papery sheath to form the “head” or bulb of garlic.