It's story time my favorite farm foodies! This taste bud teasing, crazy love story begins with a BANG! And a POW! And a THUD! Holy galloping garlic bulbs Batman! What's all the commotion?! Ah, that my friend, is the sweet sound of bulb cracking. You see, to plant the perfect cloves you must first crack open the perfect bulbs. And that involves SMACKING the bottom of the bulb (basal plate) on a hard surface to loosen the cloves. Once those plump little lovelies are loosened, EACH and EVERY clove is inspected. The biggest and brightest are saved for planting while the small fries are saved for green garlic seed (aka baby garlic) and tasty recipes for new garlic products. After the cloves are sorted they're planted...by hand! Yep, every single clove of the nearly 20,000 we planted last October, was placed individually in it's own hole, tip side up, by hand. Then, like a pacing parent, we waited...sometimes not so patiently, for 9 MONTHS, 'til the time was juuuust right to dig each one up from the ground. From there, this tasty tale saunters its savory way up to the barn where the garlic hangs to "cure" (dry). Curing allows the deliciousness to drooled over for 6-8 months (depending on the variety). And that, my garlic loving friends, is the crazy love story of Great Garlic. You've got to be a little off your rocker to love working this hard at playing in the dirt. And we wouldn't have it any other way