Our garlic will be tested for garlic bloat nematode by the plant disease clinic at the University of MN in June 2026.
All garlic varieties are $2 per bulb. Bulbs are over 2″ and may be larger depending on the year. Elephant garlic is $5/ bulb. Shipping will be $14.00.
Email order to ricecreekfarm@yahoo.com. Payment can be arranged by cash, check, paypal or venmo, or XRP.
Music (porcelain): One of our most popular varieties. We like this variety for its very large size and high medicinal content. It has a starchy texture when cooked and is amazing mixed into mashed potatoes. Very large cloves make it easy to get lots of garlic with minimal peeling. Very hot when raw. This variety stores very well into February. Bulbs have 3-6 cloves.
Chesnok Red (purple stripe): We think that this is a great all-around garlic. Known for its fine flavor and smooth texture when roasted. It regularly wins awards as one of the best tasting baking garlic. It adds sweet garlic flavor without heat to dishes. Chesnok Red produces large bulbs with 8-12 medium sized cloves per head. It has a medium storage length of about 6 months. This one has become a consistently large bulb producer for us.
Donostia Red (creole): We first planted this one in the fall of 2022. Here is a description from Whistling Duck Farm. “A beautiful, reliable producer from the city of Donostia in Spain. Like other Creoles, this garlic stores amazingly well. It is HOT, with 10-12 magenta cloves per good-sized bulb, with a white outer wrapper. Thrives in warmer-winter regions but will grow in cooler areas as well.” This garlic is medium spicy and seems to have a savoriness to it. It does store very well for us, remaining useable into early summer. We have trouble getting it to size up past 1 3/4″ due to our cold climate. We end up with a lot of small ones. In a much warmer climate it should size up much better. Spring planted bulbs size up a little better for us that the fall planted bulbs, indicating its preference for warm winters.
Inchellium Red (artichoke): We chose this variety for its award-winning flavor (1990 Rodale Kitchens best tasting soft neck). Good storage length, 6-9 months. Bulbs contain 8-20 cloves. Here in MN these always have a percentage that have bulbils form in the stem (bolt) so that we are only able to braid a portion of the crop. Customers who purchase braids of these will often tell us that they used the last bulb at 12 months of storage. It is usually starting to get a little rubbery at that time but is still very useable.
Xian (turban): We started planting this one in the fall of 2024. Other sites describe this garlic as great for varied climates. Tolerates hot and dry as well as cold northern climates. Has 4-6 large cloves that are attractively striped. As an early maturing variety, it is a great summer garlic to use with whatever you are harvesting at the time. Best storage life for a turban. It is reportedly a favorite of Chester Aaron, a garlic grower and author of “Garlic is Life.” Not super spicy, we agree that this garlic has a flavor that compliments summer time cooking. We find that this variety needs to be planted very late in October to prevent premature sprouting. It is considered a very early harvest garlic, even as early as the third week in June. Our first season growing Xian everything was very late and Xian harvested at normal harvest time for us. We harvested it in mid-July along with our other artichokes.
Thermadrone (artichoke): We started growing in the fall of 2023. Grey Duck Garlic describes this French softneck garlic as “popular with chefs and will add an authentic flavor to your French dishes. It has a true deep garlic flavor with a Dijon-type mustard middle note. This is unlike any other garlic we have tasted and seems to blend especially well with butter.” It can be stored under the proper conditions for 6-9 months. The large white bulbs with brown and purple streaks contain 12-20 flattened cloves. This one has better size potential, forms stem bulbils (bolts) less often, and stores a little better than Inchelium Red. This seems to be a very hardy grower for us compared to the other artichokes we’ve grown.
Spanish Roja (rocambole): Considered by connoisseurs to set the bar for garlic flavor, it is a Northwest heirloom that came to the Portland, Oregon area over a hundred years ago. It is generally a vigorous grower with large foliage that is dark green and results in a pretty good-sized bulb. Its flavor is very strong, hot and spicy and sticks around for a long time. It seems to have an especially rich taste. In the kitchen it peels very easily. From a grower’s perspective, it grows well in cold winter areas. Keeps 4-6 months. Historically widely available, we’re seeing fewer producers offering it. We read from other growers that it doesn’t grow well in wet conditions, but for us it has performed well year after year.
Idaho Silver (silverskin): Idaho Silver is a softneck silverskin whose origin story is lost to time. It is known to have a long storage life with a rich flavor, its moderate bite increases with storage. We started growing this one as part of our efforts to find varieties for braiding. Some years it has been 90% softneck, other years 40-50% softneck, but when it bolts you get a full scape rather than stem bulbils. Harvesting the scape maintains its size. One of our latest harvested garlics, it easily stores up to 12 months.
Greek (silverskin): We started growing this one in the fall of 2024 because of it’s reported extremely good storage ability. Supposedly it can store 12-18 months in optimal storage conditions. We will be bringing this to market in limited amounts for the first time in 2026. We will update our description as we have more experience with cooking and growing this variety.
Elephant Garlic (leek family): The flavor is considered to be milder than garlic and can be eaten raw in salads, roasted, or sauteed, but is generally not a substitute for conventional garlic in cooking. There is some evidence that elephant garlic grown in colder climates develop a sharper flavor than those grown in southern climates. We do notice a sharp flavor when raw that goes away in cooking. This one tends to store a full year for us. Elephant garlic is $5/bulb.
Rice Creek Farm 