Scroll down towards the bottom to see this year in passing. Things changed a lot this year. This Newsletter will grow as things change. Click Here to Read the 2003 Newsletter. Click Here to Read the 2002 Newsletter. Click Here to Read the 2001 Newsletter. Click Here to Read the 2000 Newsletter. Click Here to Read the 1999 Newsletter. The Ongoing Newsletter and crop update as of November 11, 2004. Added December 21, 2004 - Sorry, friends, we're all sold out of fresh garlic for the season. Our next shipments will will be in Summer/Fall of 2005. Place your orders early in the year for September shipping to get the best chance of getting exactly the rare garlics you want; after all, they are rare and people do not always get ones they want because they're so hard to find. Added November 5, 2004 - We have plenty of large excellent German Extra Hardy and Music - both longer storing garlics. We also have some nice Chesnok Red and Persian Star, the two best of all roasting garlics. Click on names to buy. We also still have a nice selection of garlics for Assortments. Order now while there's still time to plant and a good selection. Added September 16, 2004 - We are now starting to ship garlic and early orders are already being sent. We're always grateful for those early orders and reward their faith in us with the best of the new crop garlic. Place your orders now while we still have an abundant supply of premium quality garlics. In the good news/bad news department; we have some Creoles this year, mostly Burgundy, but they're on the smallish side - we couldn't find seed stock until December and planted in december and January. Still, we would have gotten a bigger crop if we had not gotten an early heat spell that forced them all to maturity when still smallish. But, small Creoles are always better than no Creoles. Creoles are so rare that even experts have a hard time getting any of them. They are always expensive whenever you find them. We have, of course, set aside the largest of our crop for planting this fall and expect to have a good supply of large and extra-large Creoles this time next year. We are already out of all larger sizes of all Creole varieties, though we still have some of the smaller ones. Early orders claimed most of the available supply (See how important early ordering can be?). The article in last year's Sept/Oct edition of Organic Gardening magazine recommending Creoles (and us) for warm winter regions of the country has caused an immediate increase in demand for these rare treasures. Creoles are the hardest to find of all garlics these days, and the increase in demand comes at a time when there simply aren't many available. The good news is that we expect to have a much greater supply of them next year and the year after. Added June 26, 2004 - Summer is officially here and most of the wild flowers are gone, replaced by the green and straw colors of the prairie grasses. Most of the garlic is harvested with only the Metechi and Siberian still growing. They are magnificent garlics and very impressive. We will have some Burgundy available this year, but with a one pound limit. Most are of fair size, but aren't as big as we are accustomed to, due to late planting and early forced maturity (heat spell), but are beautiful and healthy and we will have more and bigger ones next year. Creoles of any size are always better than no Creoles. Added June 5, 2004 - What a magnificent spring we're having out here on the ranch. It looks like a sea of pinks, reds, yellows, golds, whites and blues covering the prairie like a wall-to-wall carpet of colored snow. The perfumed air is heavy with the sounds of birds and insects as the Landlady dons her finest apparel to show us that not only is she strong and powerful, but that she is also a thing of beauty and a patron of the natural arts. She has turned our little piece of central Texas into candy for the eyes, ears, nose and soul. When the Landlady feels good, everyone feels good. There's a creek that meanders through our place that makes for a down right pleasant and cool walk. It would also make a nice place for a riding trail and we have been talking about fixing up the old 7 stall horse barn and getting a few horses someday. The water isn't very clear, but it has drawn animals to drink for thousands of years. The creek keeps us green out here on the edge of the prairie. It's at time like this I wish we had some cabins so we could share this springtime paradise with others - E-mail me if you would like to visit someday. I'd like to post some pictures soon, but my scanner isn't working. I gotta get one of those digital cameras soon. We don't usually encourage visitors because I enjoy them so much I wind up getting nothing else done and fall even further behind. However, we are considering welcoming visitors at planting time in the fall and at harvesting time in the spring (it's too late for this spring) if they want to help out with the crop. For those who don't like to camp out, we have available a couple of nice fully equipped vacation condo-type homes with wood burning fireplaces and a modern ranchhouse-style luxury hostel with two large dormitory-type bunk bedrooms in nearby communities. E-mail me if you would like to attend. We are also considering doing a series of seminars on the various aspects of garlic, for example, a seminar on how to cook with garlic in specific ways to maximize particular compounds that researchers say have health benefits or detailed discussions of the chemistry of garlic and how it works in the human body. We could also do lectures on the art of growing garlic, complete with a personally conducted tour of our little growing operation or hands-on, participatory cooking classes - you actually do it, not just sit there and watch someone else have all the fun. Of course, if we have another of our long hot dry summers, all this breathtaking beauty will have turned brown and be sleeping in its dusty coccoon, patiently awaiting the life-giving liquid refreshment that will again allow it to serve at the Landlady's beckoning call. Added May 19, 2004 - This year we expect (or rather, hope) to have some Creole cultivars available - for the first time in five years (OK, we had a few last year). Creoles are probably the rarest of all garlics these days as very few people grow them and their crops are all small. They are in very great demand but in very limited supply, due largely to the article mentioning us in Organic Gardening Mag last fall. I almost hate to sell any of my small hoard since any pound that I sell is a pound I cannot plant this fall, but I will part with a limited amount of them anyway. We sell cleaned bulbs by the pound and in assortments. Because of the small number of bulbs in our harvest this year, we will be able to sell Creoles only in small assortments although we will have Burgundy available by the pound, but with a limit of one pound of Burgundy per customer. That's a lot of garlic as Creoles are small garlics and it takes a lot more of them to make a pound, but it takes just as much work to grow one of them as it does any of the larger varieties. Our other garlics should remain in full supply unless otherwise noted. Next year they should be in a little better supply, but they will remain hard to find for a few more years as there just aren't very many growers of them. Creoles are our most expensive cultivars, costing $24/lb + S&H when available at all. Our standard prices for 2004 will remain at $16./pound for most bulk garlics, with special assortments costing from $18. to $24. In most cases, add $2 per pound for premium sizes. Shipping will be $8 for the first pound plus $2 extra for each additional pound. Added April 27, 2004 - Our toll-free incoming phone line, 1 - ( 866 ) 348-3049 is back up again after having been down for a few days due to a glitsch in changing over to a new program. I apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused. It's very important to order early as the earliest processed orders get the best choice of the new crop garlic - and many cultivars sell out early. Our crop of Creole garlics (Burgundy, Ajo Roja and Creole Red) is still doing great. If growing conditions continue to be favorable, this will be one of our best crops ever. Virtually all our Creoles are big and healthy and already starting to form bulbs. They will be sending up scapes very soon. All the other varieties of garlic we have for sale this year will come from our nationwide network of small organic growers. When you buy garlic from us, you help support many other small growers as well. Added April 12, 2004 - We would like to welcome the readers of Herb Companion magazine to our website. My thanks to Susan Belsinger for mentioning us in their May 2004 issue - it always feels good when a such a well respected publication recommends you. Recognition is one of the main things that makes the long hours of toil worth the effort. Herb Companion has long been a valuable source of herbal information to us and it makes me feel honored and humbled to be favorably mentioned. We feel very fortunate to have been recommended by several other publications in the last few years, including, The NY Times, Forbes Magazine, Food and Wine magazine, Organic Gardening, Texas Gardening, The Dallas Morning News and San Francisco Chronicle, among many newspapers across the country. We must be doing something right. It's spring again and the wildflowers are everywhere! The garlic is looking healthy and robust and is getting bigger and stronger every day. It was a cool winter but not a cold one. What happened to our cold winters? I guess we just had a global warming kind of cold winter. We have gotten good rains and just about right when we needed them. Attagirl, Mother Nature! We are growing nothing but Creole varieties this year and they look beautiful already. All other cultivars we will have available will come from our network of small organic growers across the country. We expect to have limited quantities of Burgundy, Ajo Rojo and Creole Red for sale. These are the rarest and most sought-after garlics, especially by warm winter growers. You can find out more about Creoles on our Varieties and Overview pages. It has been several years since the landlady (Mother Nature) has allowed us to harvest a crop of Creoles and we're as tense as expectant parents. You have to have seen and tasted the Creoles to understand the passion they create. They are every bit as special a garlic as they look. I feel like a kid in the last couple of weeks of school, knowing that the endless joys of summer's freedom are coming soon. The anticipation is almost too much. I played my Choctaw cedar flute again this year at the Paint Rock Pictograph site (Click here to read of our excellent 2003 experience at Paint Rock) during the winter solstice and again during the vernal equinox and discovered the meanings of some of the pictographs. Some of them were ritualistic, such as the paintings that honored the Green Corn Moon and the Ripe Corn Moon, two of the biggest celebrations of the year among corn growing indians. Some of them were of astronomical significance, such as those depicting the supernovae of 1054 and 1572 and one that was a beautiful map of the winter/spring sky. Another was already known to be a reliable marker for the winter solstice. There may even be a summer solstice marker in the Ripe Corn Moon figure - we'll soon see as the summer solstice is only about six weeks away. It's a real "Aha" moment when you finally figure out a pictograph. What was a mystery for a few is suddenly clear. More in a few days. These are the Kinds of Garlic We Typically Have in Stock. We Will Probably Have These and More in 2004! Inchelium Red - rich medium artichoke. California Early - mellow medium artichoke. Chesnok Red - rich medium purple stripe - BEST ROASTING GARLIC! Persian Star - mellow medium flavor purple stripe - excellent roaster. German Stiffneck - a porcelain garlic with really big cloves and stores well. Rosewood - rich and very strong porcelain garlic that stores well - few but big cloves. Korean Red - rich and strong porcelain garlic. Mother of Pearl - very rich, yet mellow silverskin garlic that stores well. Killarney Red - very big and full flavored rocambole that will leave you wanting more. China Rose - very large and very rich, yet mellow turban artichoke - great for warm winter gardens early harvesting. Romanian Red - rich and very strong porcelain with few but large cloves. Georgian Crystal - rich and mellow medium flavor porcelain that stores well. Summit Roja - big strong rocambole garlic that is very flavorful. Spanish Roja - strong and really good flavored rocambole - Ron England's favorite. Leningrad - rich and strong rocambole from the heart of Mother Russa. Siberian - beautiful very purple mellow garlic that stores well - great for warm winter area gardens. German Brown - a very rich rocambole. German Red - another very rich strong rocambole. Silverwhite - long storing silverskin with good flavor that just gets better with time. Music - rich medium-strong porcelain garlic with big cloves and stores well. Klamuth Red - rich yet mellow medium flavored - unusual for a rocambole garlic. Elephant garlic - we still have a little left - stores longer than the others. We expect to have several more new commitments and will have 30 or 40 varieties available by mid-September. We will add them to the Boutique page and also add information about them in the Varieties Page as they come in. We will also add them to the shopping cart program to make it easier to order them. I will try to keep the website updated often so that new varieties are posted immediately. Added November 17, 2003 - It has been a busy fall season, especially since Organic Gardening magazine ran an article about garlic mentioning us and recommending us as a mail order source of garlic. It always feels good when some national publication recognizes your work and mentions you favorably in an article. There was another Garlic is Life! Symposium in Tulsa and it was super. The scientific focus this year was on identifying the basic groups of garlic and the origin places of those particular groups of garlic. The latest findings indicate seven groups or clusters of garlic types, with the Creoles being yet undefined. An earlier study had shown 17 isozyme groups falling into five major categories. To read more about this years symposium, click here: The symposium has been a gold mine to me in terms of being able to meet knowledgeable, multi-degreed people from whom I have learned much about all aspects of garlic. It is from these well-informed experts from afar that I get the information for the website. The material in my website comes from these experts' lectures and also from the conversations we have at lunch or dinner afterward. The body of knowledge about garlic is growing exponentially, just like the interest in it and there's a lot of misinformation circulating about it, too. I try to clear up some of the confusion by talking with experts and incorporating their comments into the website - that keeps it current. Added September 12, 2003 - We owe thanks again this year to our group of Great Garlic Growers for allowing us to purchase the cream of their crops at a premium price so that we will be selling only the best that we can find. Our growers take good care of us. For those who haven't been following along with us, Our growers are remotely located growers who don't have much of a local market, but who can grow some really great garlic. By patronizing these small scale growers we are promoting e-commerce in America. With the help of our growers, we can deliver these gourmet varieties to the people who come to our website looking for them. Everybody wins. NEW! - Added May 1, 2003 - Check out our new line of pickled/marinated garlic. - In Hosgood's, we have finally found a broad line of pickled garlic products that we just love and have decided to sell them on our website and make these delightful treats available to our customers. They are in stock and ready for immediate shipment. Click here to find out more about our new pickled garlic or to order March 25, 2003 This year, I played my Choctaw cedar flute at the Winter Solstice and Vernal Equinox celebrations at the pictographs site at Paint Rock, Texas. Paint Rock is a place which many native peoples over the centuries have treated as a holy place and painted many pictures and symbols on the cliff walls above the banks of the Concho River. Observations have confirmed some of these rock paintings to accurately predict the solstices and equinoxes and some that appear to be astronomical/astrological sky charts as well. Paint Rock is a special place where one can commune with nature and feel an uncommonly strong connectedness with Mother Earth and her family (sometimes we forget that we are a part of that family - not something separate from it). It feels as if some part of the spirits of those who were here before are still here. It is an invitation to open the eyes and ears of your soul to hear the stories of those whose innumerable campfires dot the night sky and whose names can never be said again. One comes away with a feeling of spiritual fulfillment and personal contentment. There are some places that just seem to have some kind of spiritual electromagnetic attraction - this place is one. Oh, Yeah, the Garlic - I almost forgot. What little we planted is doing very well. We only planted a few thousand plants this year, all them the ones that grow well in the south and other warm winter areas. Everything else we sell this year will come from more northerly growers who send us their best every year. It's the only way we can get the best rocamboles, purple stripes and porcelain garlics for our customers. Those who have been reading the newsletters for a few years will remember that I am a ranchhand on my wife's family's cattle ranch. This keeps me fairly busy though I don't ride anymore since the old horse died and I've not yet found a new one that won't hurt my back to ride, so we hire some local cowboys to do a lot of the work, freeing me up to focus on the garlic as much as possible. I don't especially miss being saddle sore, anyway. Riding two days in a row was always rough and I lived in fear of having to ride three days in a row. Gotta go do some real work now, more later... Always check the Boutique Page for what is currently available. If you wish, you can E-Mail me or call me toll-free at (1-866-348-3049) to tell me what you want to order so that I can verify price and availability. Some Important Developments from 2002! We have a couple of new developments this year that will assure faster shipping and better storage of our garlics. We have built a walk-in cooler where the temp is always in the mid-50's (perhaps ideal for storing garlic for our purposes) and a shipping department that will accomodate more people so that orders can be filled and sent quicker. Our new shipping department is air-conditioned so that the garlic stays cool as long as possible - it's better for the shippers, too. I will still select the varieties of garlic for all orders, but my helpers will pick, sack and pack most orders this year and the local economy can always stand a little help. BIG NEWS! We are now set up to accept credit cards (Visa, Mastercard and American Express and soon, Discover) and we have installed a shopping cart to simplify buying and to automate the process. Even though our process appears to be automatic, it isn't. I still review each and every sale before the credit card is charged and usually write a personal comment on the receipt that gets sent with the package. We are not going to sacrifice personal service to automation, we just use it to makes things go better for everyone. Ordering is easier than ever now with the on-line shopping cart. It will not only accept credit cards on line, but also fill out an order form for you to print and send if you prefer to pay by check and also would prepare a checklist if you prefer to give your credit card information over our toll-free phone line. If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail or call me. Check the Boutique page for New Available Varieties as season goes on. Click Here to Go To the Boutique - Buy Small Assorted Sampler Packs of garlic & other things. Click Here to Go To the Varieties Page - Buy specific varieties of garlic by the pound. A look back at the Topsy-Turvy 2001 crop year. What an interesting year this has been! One is enough of years like 2001. It was a year of ecstastic highs (They wrote a big article about us in Texas Gardener Magazine.) and tragic lows with some growers experiencing bumper crops while others while others watched their garlic wither or drown. It was an incredible spring followed by 9-11, it was a year when some beautiful garlic turned bad in storage. Due to the article in Forbes, we got more orders than ever before but much of the garlic from one particular grower wilted prematurely and many orders had to be cancelled. All in all; however, it was a spectacular year that I won't be forgetting any time soon. So far, the 21st century is rather turbulent, but interesting in a fatal attraction sort of way. A look back at 2000 and a first look at this years crop as of March 22 2001. Wow! What a wild and crazy year 2000 was for us, especially when you remember that we lost our crop in April to a tornado/freak hail storm. While 2000 brought us a lot more unanticipated free publicity in the way of being recommended in Forbes Magazine and stories that mentioned us in lots of newspapers across the country, it also brought more than its share of adversity. 2000 was undoubtedly the hottest and driest year of my life - it hit 116 degrees several times - we were in the midst of the worst drought in our local history. Funny, the drought ended when we went to the Garlic is Life Symposium and Festival in Tulsa, OK in Oct. It started raining on us there and rained on us all the way back from Tulsa. Mother Nature always seems to have special treats in store for this part of Texas. We love the isolation of living in a remote creek bottom area with abundant wildlife (game, the hunters call it) and if severe weather is the rent Mama Earth charges us for living in her home, it's more than reasonable. We usually grow pretty good garlic in the fertile creekside soil, but if we have to miss a crop or two occasionally, it's still cheap rent. What the 1999 Crop was like and how the year ended. Wow! What a busy year 1999 was. First, we were favorably mentioned in a Food and Wine magazine article and then the New York Times mentioned us as did the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Contra Costa Times and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and several other publications, too. I feel very flattered.

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