Where We Source Our Garlic: Dyer Family Organic Farm

This past weekend, we took a trip to see Dick and Diane at Dyer Family Organic Farm in Ann Arbor to check out the garlic growing process.  If you aren't familiar with our seasonal Sesame Sea Salt & Garlic bar, it's a spring special only available for a couple of months out of the year, and it's truly delicious and unique.  We use the Dyer's garlic, more specifically a variety called "music" which is naturally quite sweet. 

The Dyers plant their garlic in the fall, and throughout the winter each plant establishes a deep root system to eventually come up in the spring, sometimes poking through the snow in the winter.  

As the seasons go by, the plants rapidly develop leaves and will need about an inch of water a week until late June.

The garlic heads are ready to harvest in July when half the leaves have turned brown. They then dig carefully under the head of garlic to break its roots (do not try to pull it up by the leaves) and lift it from the garden bed, keeping it out of direct sunlight.

At this point, the garlic is typically ready to eat or dry! In the case of our garlic bar, the garlic is dried and kept in a nice cool dry space to maintain it's perfect flavor for the next round.