It was all fun and games until the summer of 2020 when everything dried out and the grasshoppers first appeared in mass on our farm. Since then our wide-eyed visions of lush, leafy fields of green have morphed into a humbling reality that this idea can be the exception and not the rule.
For the last two years we've been fumbling through pivot after pivot trying to stay one step ahead of these hungry buggers. Last year we brought in 200 laying hens to hopefully devour them all. This year we stopped our CSA program to lower our seasonal commitments. Through it all though, there was our healthy garlic patch - not munched and growing happily with less water needs.
When a group of us farmers who were hardest hit by the hoppers got together last summer to envision a plan through this challenging situation, garlic was also on their minds. In hopes of stabilizing the roller coaster that is farming in the high desert, we've decided to team up to share costs, duties and brain power to form a Garlic Seed company. Hopefully we can all help to build something bigger than ourselves and imagine a successful future for agriculture in our home, whether or not it fits our lush fantasies.
-Max Kirks