GLENDON – Best friends Miesha Fewchuk and Bree Garska have started a micro garlic farm together - learning as they go, experimenting, and spending time together hand planting and weeding.
Garlic Garden Co. is located outside of Glendon, and Fewchuk and Garska met at the location to tend their garden together.
Having Ukrainian and Polish heritage within their families, Fewchuk and Garska cook with a lot of garlic. When Fewchuk’s husband suggested she grow some, she ran with the suggestion and messaged her friend to ask if she’d be interested in starting a micro garlic farm together.
“Everything is better with garlic. Our families eat a lot of it, so why not try growing it?” said Garska.
Fewchuk explained that a micro farm is one that is under five acres of land and has a focus on sustainability, and with a rise in people caring about the origins and quality of their food, now is a great time to start a micro farm using regenerative practices to be a supplier for your community.
“I think a lot of people want to know where their food comes from, and that it’s not sprayed with chemicals. And the more you can buy local the better. We tested organic fertilizer, but we’re not doing any spraying,” said Fewchuk.
Garska jumped at the opportunity when Fewchuk asked, and the women spoke highly about the quality time they’ve be able to spend together learning about farming and creating Garlic Garden Co.
“I said sure! But figured we should do a little test run first. So we planted two rows at my place last year. Everything came up pretty well except one variety so we scrapped that one. We’re still in our trial period and it’s a steep learning curve, but this year we just went for it and planted over 2,200 cloves.”
A pregnant Fewchuk, and Garska with her three children, wore matching pink gardening aprons in front of the garlic patch, laughing about kids and dogs squashing some of the plants.
Through their struggles learning about land grading, the hand planting and weeding, and many hours spend researching on the internet, Fewchuk and Garska have tackled the project as a team, and were quick to giggle about all the bumps along the way, calling it a wild, wonderful ride.
Garlic is planted in the fall, and Fewchuk and Garska spoke about the anticipation of spring and checking almost daily to see what sprouts come up.
A lot of their produce will be sold through word of mouth, but they are looking into attending some farmers' markets in the future. With such a positive response from the community, Fewchuk and Garska are looking forward to continuing to learn and grow Garlic Garden Co.
“The response we’ve received from the community has been overwhelming. We did not expect it. A lot of people heard we’d started a little garlic patch through word of mouth,” said Garska.
Fewchuk said it’s been “phenomenal” getting to work with her friend.
“It’s pretty easy - we get along really well. And when you go to work, it’s just like hanging out with your best friend – it's like girls' night – we're out here slinging garlic and pulling weeds,” said Garska.
When asked what advice they would give to others considering starting a micro farm, Garska laughed and said “Grow for it!”
