I pulled my first bulb of garlic and admired its knobbly purple-streaked husk. It was the size of a baseball and smelled powerfully like arrabiata and earth. It’s beautiful, I thought, taking a moment to stop and smell the little rose. Only 14,000 left to go.
It was a hot July day at Brent and Moira Garstin’s 15-acre farm, 5.5 kilometres from Courtenay, BC. Under the careful supervision of Brent Garstin (and dozens of free-range chickens), I laboured with a group of sweaty friends to yank bulbs destined for local markets.
Garstin came to the Comox Valley from Northern Alberta 35 years ago, and quickly gained a reputation for his exceptional organic compost. Gradually, he grew his farm to include crops, chickens and a cider orchard.
Equal parts historian, teacher and philosopher, he has a sharp sense of humour and a disarming directness perhaps necessitated by what he calls the Farming Default Position: “death and failure”. Reflecting on his shift of focus from compost to garlic 12 years ago, Brent gestured out the window and took me back in time.
“This land used to be a camas meadow. Camas is a member of the lily family and was a major food crop for Indigenous peoples long before we got here. They maintained this land. They culturally managed it. Now keep in mind — Camas is a bulb, similar to garlic, that has grown here for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
“Long before anything was planted here, it was an alluvial estuary perfect for any member of the allium family. I’m able to grow phenomenally good garlic here and I think it’s because the land had all the right characteristics already — I just add compost.”
Garstin’s crop includes a breed of Italian Softneck garlic, porcelain-skinned Leningrad, and the purple-flecked Rocambole that I helped to harvest. All three types are bigger in both size and flavour compared to the tube socks of Chinese garlic you can buy at a big box store. The stereotypical “garlic burn” is replaced by a mild bite, buttery body and a surprising sweetness that perfectly complements Italian and Chinese dishes.
Most of Garstin’s garlic is sold wholesale but some goes to farmers’ markets, festivals and occasionally into the kitchens of local restaurants such as Courtenay’s Il Falcone. It is also finding its way onto the high shelf at the best watering holes: Wayward Distillery recently released a limited raw garlic vodka dubbed “Garstin’s Plunder”–a kick-ass addition to Caesars and other savoury cocktails.
Garstin favours “simple food, farmer food. It’s about authenticity and mindfulness. I’ll braise one of our farm chickens in hard cider with some shallots, porcini mushrooms and, of course, lots of garlic.”
“If you want to eat well,” he says, shaking my hand at the end of the day, “you have to look into the eyes of the people who are feeding you. Talk to a farmer, go to the farmers’ market and talk with the people who grow your food.”
Although panna cotta is normally served for dessert, this savoury recipe makes for an interesting first...
Copyright ©2024 Edible Vancouver Island. All rights reserved
