Cy's Organic Garlic and Shallots

"You know? He works so hard."

One of Granny's famous sayings and boy does it apply here.

If you don't already know about this, Dad set his mind last year on selling his surplus garlic this summer.  It was Jim's idea that he do it from our driveway, something about a woman who sold flowers from her yard. Jim would drive by in the morning and the flowers were set up; drive by in the afternoon and they were all gone.  All summer long last summer.

That idea took hold and Dad went to work.

But, as with most things Dad, just selling garlic wouldn't be enough.

The shallots were gorgeous.  So add those in.

And why not bag up some Worm Castings and throw that in as a curiosity?

And as long as garlic is the main crop, why not bottle garlic powder and granules?

Why not?

Oh.  And the braids.  Those babies are a masterpiece.

You can't know how much work goes into something when you see it all displayed.  But you do know, if you know Dad at all, that this project was not done on the fly.

Dad spent hours cleaning each garlic head...with a toothbrush.  Behind him you can see the the portable curing shed where the garlic hung and dried for weeks.  

To make the granules and powder, Dad stood by the kitchen sink (for hours) and peeled every darn bulb.  The first attempt at dehydrating these was to use the dehydrator in the kitchen. "Yum!" commented Lisette, when she walked in the house, "It smells like a lovely Italian restaurant!"    But after dinner she came down the stairs to say, 
"Now it just smells like garlic and not so yummy.", which was always my concern.  The garlic dehydrates for about 48 hours; I kind of didn't want that in the kitchen.  Especially since Dad was making 3 batches of these.  So the game room (with the fan to ventilate) became the place to dehydrate.  Dad is currently dehydrating onions because, why not?

And here you have it: Cy's Organic Garlic.  He even sealed the containers :)

The label?  That's another story:

Lots of back and forth about how to market all of this.  This label had been the original idea for the sign that would go in the yard.  But as you'll see, it wasn't the final decision.

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The garlic and shallots have been weighed.  10 oz of garlic, 1 lb of shallots.  $5 each.  These prices are comparable - and slightly less - than what it going locally for organic garlic and shallots.  

The Worm Castings.  

After much thought, Dad decided to take his name off the yard sign and asked Annie designed to design something for him.  Isn't it gorgeous?  

A look at the tablescape.  Dad cut pieces of wood and varnished them.  He wrote pertinent information about all the products.  That's the cash box - honor system.  And a paypal option can also be used.      On the right you can see the braids.  

                                                             
                                                                   Aaahh!

             So this is how we're looking.  Dad thought it best to put the casting on a separate table.  Good call!

We got our first customer around 10:30 this morning.  Stand is going to be out through Sept. There's a lot more in buckets in the dining room, to refurbish should this catch on. 

The Worm Castings will be available all year long :)