WESTVILLE – An organic, gourmet garlic farm that’s sure to leave your taste buds wanting more is flourishing in Lansdowne.
The garlic is being grown at the Lansdowne Horse Logging Farm, owned by Jim Wood and Tina Fortier. Besides the horse logging, they operate a large organic farm to sustain most of their vegetable needs each year. But it wasn’t until their son, Justin Smith, and his wife Corey Ceccolini came into the picture that the garlic production took off.
Now, they are growing half a ton of organic garlic every year and have hopes of expanding the production to a larger scale in the years to come.
Garlic is not only an addition to many meals, but is also a revered herbal medicine known to prevent disease and restore health. It has many therapeutic qualities that have been proven to reduce blood pressure, benefit the body’s immune system and help fend off cancer.
The sort of garlic that Smith and Ceccolini grow is a hard-neck variety known as Porcelain. It’s a gourmet type of garlic, in that it produces jewel-like bulbs comprised of four to seven large cloves with robust flavour. This kind of garlic is very well acclimated to the growing conditions of Nova Scotia, as it has been grown here for more than 30 years. It was originally started at Lenny Levine’s farm in the Annapolis Valley.
The garlic is harvested in the late summer and can be found fresh for sale throughout the fall. Smith and Ceccolini have focused their sales and marketing on the ever-growing farmers’ market circuit in the province, as well as some small green grocers in the region.
Just this past year, they started selling at the Pork Shop on Westville Road. They hope to service other local stores in order to keep this healthy Pictou County crop in the community.
