Much like the bulb, Michigan’s garlic industry is small but packs a punch. That’s exactly what Tiffany Gregory and her husband Kevin of Great Lakes Garlic Farm set out to do roughly five years ago at their farm in Grand Traverse County.
“We wanted something that was unique—that we hadn’t really seen up here—but we wanted something we really liked,” she says. “There are a lot of vegetables that you could focus on and you could lightly process as part of your business, but garlic was our favorite for that.”
The Gregories landed on garlic because it was nutrient-dense food that required minimal processing. Tiffany could also the flexibility she needed as a mom. It also checked the box of being an environmentally sustainable crop they could grow on a few acres.
“We grow using organic, regenerative practices,” says Tiffany. “We do a lot of intensive, multi-species cover crops, we use a lot of compost and build the soil and protect the microbes in the soil so we can protect the life that’s all around us on our farm. I didn’t want to do anything that would be detrimental to the environment.”
One of their buildings is a licensed processing facility where Tiffany creates their own product line, including garlic powder.
“The garlic is dehydrated, then I grind it in a spice grinder,” she says. “It’s really fresh—it’s a really nice, strong garlic powder. That’s the biggest thing that I make. I’ll mix that garlic powder with a kosher salt for our garlic salt. I mix it with fresh ground peppercorn and garlic salt for our garlic and peppercorn [seasoning].”
Great Lakes Garlic Farm also works with Grand Traverse Culinary Oils to make Garlic Dijon Mustard. Last year, the Gregories grew 10,000 pounds of garlic on three acres and are hoping to expand to five next year.
