Garlic Farm in the Desert Grasslands

This week we were very fortunate to hear about a farm in Southern Arizona near the town of Arivaca close to the Mexican border. Its owned and operated by Jon and Yong who were originally from Chicago. They moved down here about 20 years ago to pursue their unique dream of making a garlic farm. It was a risk, they had young children to provide for, and failure was not an option.

Situated amongst beautiful rolling hills and mountain views on the horizon, their farm, "Forever Yong" is nestled upon desert grasslands It gets extremely hot with midsummer temperatures getting past 40' C and dips down to almost -8' C in the early January. Average yearly rainfall is around 25cm.

They had to learn as they went along as their were not many other farmers down there at the time. Their first crops were destroyed by grasshoppers.

That catastrophe prompted them to invest in soft covered greenhouses. With mesh air ventilation along the bottom and the ability to attach shade cover they provided better more reliable growing conditions.

The above show freshly planted cucumbers covered to preserve moister. The leafy greens are kale, collards, and other lettuces.


To the right here you can see freshly planted beans with very thin plastic meshing to assist in upward growth and also making them easier on the back to pick when harvest time comes.

Below we can see their main crop which is garlic. Planted in long strait rows and watered with drip irrigation. Their farm is one of the only places growing garlic in southern North America making this product their own little niche.

I'll leave this post with a picture below of Jon. He showed the most wonderfully warm personality combined with enthusiasm and knowledge. They accept WWOOF'ers all year round and are especially keen to host more in the summer time. We met a couple of guys living and wwoof'ing on site and they seemed very happy and upbeat. Their main crops as I mentioned are garlic as well as onions and they hope to expand those operations as well continue to diversify their veggie crops which are all organically grown and are available at local markets. 

Forever Yong Farm was a pleasure to visit and don't miss checking out the little town of Arivaca down the road. A place with character and characters abound. 

Arriving in Southern Arizona

Here we are leaving Toronto. 

Aaaaaaannnnnnnnd we finally made it to Arizona !!!

Well actually we were delayed a day by freezing rain in Toronto. Luckily my sister was gracious enough to house us at her place for another night. I don't think we'll miss this weather too much. 

But now we are really here and absolutely loving every bit of this amazing ecosystem. The plant life in the desert is like nothing I've experienced before with cacti growing wherever they can and almost every bit of bush and tree is equipped with natural thorny defences used to ward off anything that wants to mess with them and to maximize precious water absorption.  

 You do not want to wipe out on a bike going down these paths.

Our surroundings in Green Valley Arizona are picturesque with mountains in the background and, as I mentioned, cacti everywhere. Big ones, small ones, some taller than myself. 

Those cacti above are actually relatively small and are part of a manicured garden. Seems like most residents have abandoned grass lawns in place of more desert friendly rock gardens with varieties of desert plant life. Makes for very pleasant and low maintenance property enhancements.

The rain starts coming in the spring and aids the growth of many flowering plants. Even in the winter one can still find some bushes with flowers which are full of busy bees doing their thing.

Looking forward to exploring this landscape further.