Our garlic is grown in the Sandon Valley, about 11 kilometres South of Newstead and West of Yandoit in Central Victoria. We are nestled between Castlemaine, Clunes and Daylesford, and the climate is perfect for growing garlic with cold winters and warm spring, both of which allow us to grow great organic garlic.  Garlic is a typical temperate crop.  That is, it does best when it's grown through a cold winter and finished off in warm weather. This describes the climate around our farm.

Garlic relies on clear seasonal messages to move from its dormant, growing, and then onto its reproduction stage. As long as there's moist soil, good drainage and nutrition it will do very well through the cold winter that is typical of our area. To create the perfect bulb of garlic, a slow, steady, natural pace is needed without being artificially pushed along with chemical additives and artificial fertilisers.

Sandon garlic was born from the observation that many fruit and vegetables being sold in supermarkets were actually grown 100’s if not 1000's of kilometers from the point of sale.  Also, some of these products looked fantastic but had minimal flavour.   Garlic is a prime example, imported from China, Mexico, USA, and Argentina.  Fumigated and bleached so it looks great but had lost its volatile oils which gave it the distinct flavour.

We have a very simple philosophy at Sandon Garlic, grow the best garlic possible with the minimum input of anything artificial and minimising carbon miles.

Our garlic has no mechanical or chemical inputs, the beds are dug by hand, planted by hand, weeded by hand, watered by hand, and harvested by hand. The garlic is then allowed to dry naturally before being sorted ready for sale.

The beds we plant into are not overworked and are rested every second year with a green manure crop sown to put back what has been harvested, and to minimise the possibility of a buildup of viruses or bugs that would require application of chemicals or fungicides.

The garlic grown is a purple neck variety, which after 3 years of test planting, was shown to be best suited to the areas terrior.
Since the property was purchased in 2009 - no artificial fertilisers have been used on the entire 42 Hectare property.  The only products used on the garlic are: organic compost, lime and blood and bone.

So if you are tired of buying garlic at your supermarket that has been bleached, fumigated and lacks flavor, try the real thing.  Grown locally and with pride and care rather than to a price point.

The 2014 crop is "out of the ground", and is at least 50% bigger than  last years crop, so hopefully this year we will be able to fulfill all orders.  If you are interested in purchasing some, drop us an email , or contact Vicki  on her mobile. Check out our Favourite Garlic Recipes for a few recipes that highlight other uses for the garlic that are a little "off the beaten track".