Harvest Begins — July 2026

Harvest Is Only Half the Story

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” — Lao Tzu

I’ve found myself thinking about these words a lot lately. It’s funny, because harvest feels anything but unhurried.

This has been one of the most physically demanding seasons. Every bulb planted by hand. Every amendment measured. Every row weeded, irrigated, scaped, and now harvested by hand. There have been days when we wonder if we’ll ever catch up.

As each bed comes out of the ground, we’re seeing some of the largest porcelain garlic we’ve ever grown. There’s something incredibly gratifying about reaching into the soil and lifting a bulb that fills your palm. Dense. Heavy. Beautiful. Exactly what we were hoping for—and this year, many of our bulbs delivered.

One of the best parts of harvest is that we don’t have to wait anymore. Freshly harvested bulbs are already making their way into our kitchen while the rest of the crop has been tucked into the Curing House. Fans are running around the clock as we do everything we can to give each bulb the best possible conditions as it cures.

While this year’s crop cures, another chapter is already beginning.

Over the past month, we’ve been talking to landowners, studying maps, researching soil history, and talking with crop specialists at Washington State University Mount Vernon and the Washington State Department of Agriculture. It’s a little bit mind-boggling how much has been accomplished and learned already in a single season. The questions we’re asking today are very different from the ones we were asking last fall.

While our long-term goal remains organic certification, this season has highlighted what it truly takes to build a planting stock program: healthy soils, careful inspections, and sound science. Our immediate focus is healthy soils, field inspections, and carefully selected planting stock as we build a program centered on careful stewardship.

That’s always been part of our vision.

Every season teaches, and our path has always been through education—especially in understanding the delicate balances that farming asks of us every day. The more we learn, the more we realize that every great harvest begins long before the first clove is planted.

It begins with the land.