BOZEMAN — What started as a small gardening experiment for Gae Bjorklund has grown into a thriving business supplying garlic to customers across the country.
“It was just kind of by accident,” Bjorklund said.
Fifteen years ago, she set out to learn how to grow garlic. Now, her garage and barn are packed with thousands of pounds of the crop.
“I learned the planting, the whole process. I scaled up my inventory, found the varieties that I wanted to grow that did well here. Pretty soon, I had way more garlic than we could use,” Bjorklund said.
That surplus inspired the launch of Montana Stinking Rose, a marketplace where she sells and advertises seed-grade garlic to gardeners nationwide.
“They are asking questions on how to grow it, when to harvest scapes, when to cure it,” she said.
Watch: Behind the business success story
“Stinking rose” is a nickname for garlic, and while its smell might be strong, walking through Bjorklund’s freshly harvested crop brings to mind foods like spaghetti, garlic bread.
“The purple stripes have good color,” Bjorklund said, pointing out one variety.
Bjorklund says Montana’s climate is ideal for garlic.
“It is something you plant in the fall, and it is one of the first things up in the spring. The porcelain varieties will get waist high,” she told MTN.
Bjorklund grows eight distinct varieties, supplying local nurseries and shipping nationwide.
The plants thrive in northern winters, but gardeners in warmer states can still grow them with a little extra preparation.
“If they buy them in the south, there is a vernalization period where they have to put them in a refrigerator for several weeks to simulate our winter,” she said.
This year’s late-July harvest produced between 6,000 and 7,000 pounds of garlic.
“Yeah, I scaled back this year,” Bjorklund said with a laugh.
What began as a happy accident has grown into a business with roots in the Gallatin Valley, connecting garlic lovers from coast to coast.
“I have met a lot of wonderful people doing this. They will be on vacation and make it a point to stop by and take a look, to see where their garlic comes from,” Bjorklund said.
Want to buy some yourself: https://montanastinkingrose.com.
