RUPERT, Idaho — Jana and Geoff Yockey didn’t start out with garlic in mind when they moved from Florida to return to farming. It was circumstance that led to their Garlic Gods operation.

Jana grew up on the family farm that her great-great grandfather homesteaded in south-central Idaho. She moved to Florida for business in 2013. Raised by his grandparents, Geoff grew up on a small farm in Tennessee. The family moved to Florida when he was 12.

The two met while working together in Florida and married in 2017. Geoff was a chef and had worked in fine dining establishments for a couple of decades. But both wanted to get back to their farming roots.

The plan was to return to Jana’s family’s operation and primarily grow custom hay. But things had changed — farmland they planned on had been sold and leasing options were no longer available.

“The land wasn’t there,” Jana said.

Her dad had retired but retained 100 acres.

“We were looking for something we could do on small acreage,” she said.

As fate would have it, a family friend with a garlic operation was getting ready to retire. Another garlic grower in south-central Idaho was of the same mind.

“We bought seed stock from both of them,” she said.

First crop

They planted the first crop in the fall of 2018, sowing 250 pounds of garlic seed.

“Each year we try to add more,” she said.

This past fall, they planted 3,000 seeds on 8 acres. Since the weeding, harvesting and cleaning are all done by hand, planted acres depends on what they’re able to handle.

“It’s so much work for such a small acreage,” she said.

The crop that was just harvested produced 12,000 to 15,000 pounds of garlic, which was hanging in the cure barn — a family friend’s old milking barn — at the end of July. It will be cleaned, graded and shipped to customers starting in September.

Growing garlic is pretty easy, and Jana enjoys farming the crop.

“I like it. I get stressed out just before we harvest,” Jana said.

14 varieties

They grow 14 varieties of softneck and hardneck garlic, and most is sold for seed. The garlic is certified white rot free by the Idaho State Department of Agriculture. That’s a requirement for planting garlic in 20 counties in Idaho and one bordering county in eastern Oregon to protect the commercial onion crop.

“If we bring in new varieties, the seed has to be tested by the state before we could plant it,” she said.

“We sell to quite a few nurseries in Ada and Canyon counties, Twin Falls, Idaho Falls and Salt Lake,” she said.

They also ship seed across the U.S., mostly to home gardeners. Those shipments average 1-1/2 to 2 pounds.

“We get a lot of repeat business and referrals,” she said.

They save quite a bit of seed for their own planting.

“We decide how much of each variety and hold that back for ourselves,” she said.

Room to grow

Last year, they bought a 64-acre farm, which will allow them to grow, and prepared a Quonset hut on the property for curing the garlic. They’re hoping to get back to being Certified Naturally Grown.

That private label has the same standards as organic. They had the certification for two years but had to use a little herbicide one year at planting. The plan on their own farm is to rotate garlic and cover crops, so they have better weed suppression.

The season wraps up about two weeks before Christmas, when they finish shipping their holiday gourmet garlic gift boxes. Any leftover garlic is donated to food banks.

The winter brings a little down time for planning, updating their website and some farm projects — but they’ll start again in March or April with weeding.

Jana and

Geoff Yockey

Age: Both 47

Company: Garlic Gods

Location: Rupert, Idaho

Planted: 8 acres

Family: Grown son, Konnor

Website: https://garlicgods.com