Garlic In The Field

Arkansas

JANET BACHMANN

I grew up on a 100-acre diversified dairy farm in Iowa. After finishing a B.S. in Home Economics for General Education at Iowa State University in 1965, I joined the Peace Corps and served two years as a volunteer working in rural community development in a Turkish village. Turks use lots of garlic and I grew to love it. I later tried-unsuccessfully-to grow it in a garden in Iowa. Fortunately, I was hired to teach English as a Second Language to refugees from Laos (Thai Dam ethnic group) in 1975. They also use lots of garlic and showed me how to grow it: make a nice bed, use a broom handle to poke planting holes, stick garlic cloves in the holes, and let them grow.

In the years between 1979 and the present, I went back to ISU for a M.S. in Horticulture, worked for USDA/ARS in Ames, Iowa, doing corn pathology research; worked for the Sac & Fox Tribe in NE Kansas on a market garden project; did an internship in Sustainable Agriculture and Farm Design in the Arkansas Ozarks; worked for the Rodale Institute as their Mid-South Farmers' Network Coordinator; worked for the National Center for Appropriate Technology, which manages the ATTRA national sustainable agriculture information service; and started my own market garden. As an ATTRA technical specialist, I revised the Organic Garlic Production publication. As a market gardener, I grow vegetables, strawberries, and specialty cut flowers on about 2 or our 127 acres and sell them at the Fayetteville, Arkansas, farmers' market. I also am one of about 30 volunteers nation-wide who participate in the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers new variety trials. I am not a great garlic grower, but do grow some, and my husband and I enjoy using it. I bring a love of gardening and garlic, good soil, and an understanding of experimental design and agricultural research to this project.

Recipe: Stir-Fried Leftovers