Even with a hot and dry summer behind them, garlic seems to have ample availability right now. “We actually have a very strong supply here of garlic this year. We seem to have most of red garlic,” says Emily Best of Tuscarora Organic Growers Cooperative in Hustontown, PA. “Overall, we have about 20 per cent more garlic than last year from our growers, who are all in central Pennsylvania.”
The dry summer did prove challenging of course to growers. “A lot of our growers rely on ponds or streams for irrigation and it got very dry and they were struggling to water everything that needed water,” says Best, whose company supplies supermarkets and restaurants preferring to use local produce.
Price may be flexible
Looking ahead, Best expects pricing may drop as much as 20 per cent as the season moves into the winter. “The growers want to move it before it starts to turn bad,” she says. “They’re good at keeping it in good condition for the first month or two but then it starts going downhill after that. So the next couple of weeks we’re trying to move as much as we can. We’ll push what we can to our customers and we’ll have to think about how flexible we need to be on pricing to get some moved out.”
For more information:
Emily Best
Tuscarora Organic Growers Cooperative
Tel: 814-448-2173