The winter and coming spring growing seasons are looking promising for the "Growing the Braidwood Garlic Growers" project. There are now over 20 people involved in the project growing garlic on farms and on large town blocks with the aim of developing and documenting an increasing knowledge and expertise around garlic, its different varieties and their different growing needs in the region.
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The project, starting in 2014 involves the Upper Shoalhaven Landcare Council in conjunction with the Braidwood Garlic Growers Group in successfully obtaining a government grant (25th Anniversary Landcare Grants 2014-15) for the amount of $20,000 for a garlic growing project - Growing the Braidwood Garlic Growers. The project has reached a new milestone this month with the final planting of all garlic including late varieties that can be planted in winter rather than autumn.
The project aims to support local landholders to grow garlic crops for wholesale Australian markets. According to the Australian Garlic Industry Association (AGIA), Only about 20% of garlic sold in Australia is grown domestically so there is significant room for expanding the national crop.
A key factor in Australian garlic production is that the majority of garlic grown for the Australian market is from a small range of garlic varieties that are harvested at the same time, (November & December) and only store well for a few months.
This generally means that most Australian garlic is no longer available for consumption by April or May. That is, Australian garlic is available for a short season from late November to around April, with the majority consumed by February and March (This is referred to as the narrow production window).
Braidwood is very cool climate region on mainland Australia. It is well placed to increase the Australian market share because our soils, seasons and water availability potentially provide the climate conditions suitable to growing late season, long storage varieties of garlic.
Therefore having commercial quantities of garlic available for the Australian market beyond the current narrow production window. Garlic also has the potential as a commercial crop to improve economic resilience, agricultural profitability and environmental sustainability around Braidwood.
As an agricultural crop it has a very small footprint with high production potential. A min of around 2 tonne per acre, with most crops yielding between 6 to 8 tonnes per acre. While garlic has intensive labour inputs at particular times it does not require this level of labour intensity through the long growing period.
High tech mechanised planting and harvesting equipment is expensive and prohibitive to small individual growers, but there are also low tech and cooperative approaches to manage these intense labour times.
To this end the project has supported a number of new growers to plant over 600k of (new) garlic in the region. This is apart from the well established growers, who have been very generous in sharing their knowledge and experience with new growers.
A major goal of the project’s 2015 garlic season is to increase seed stock of the varieties primarily growing in the area; Monaro purple, and White soft neck) It is anticipated that for the 2016 season the project will have increased significantly local seed garlic availability and it is anticipated that a number of participants will commit to growing a minimum of ½ acre plots.
The project also plans for an increased planting of specific cool season long storage varieties. Soil temperature and moisture monitoring over 2015 growing season will assist in determining what varieties are suitable. Richard Walker of Landmark Braidwood has supported growers by making various soil testing probes available at cost to project members.
With a significant increase in garlic production it is anticipated that Braidwood will be able to offer wholesale garlic for Australian consumption. Wholesale marketing is by tonnage and the project aims to support small producers (producing less than a ton) to be able to wholesale their garlic through collaborative or collective selling.
In the longer term (2016 garlic season and beyond) Braidwood should be able to position itself as a key producer of late season garlic varieties that are harvested from January and have a longer storage capacity. It would be great to see growers in Braidwood putting garlic, at a premium price, onto the Australian market, beyond the current narrow production window, when little Australian garlic is available.
Project activities for the next few months will focus on testing and gathering information on the growing, storing and curing requirements of the varieties planted. This will develop the knowledge and confidence of new growers who joined the project and enable those continuing to increase production in 2016/2016.
