Vendor Profile: WeeBee Farms 2014
By Karen Beeman
WeeBee Farms is famous for our 30
different types of garlic which we sell from August to October or
November. These are grown at our farm now, but are the same garlic types
that have been passed down for many generations for over 3000 years,
starting near Central Asia.
In
the Spring we sell vegetable and flower plants for home gardens. Next
year we'll start selling more of our pollinator-friendly flower
seedlings in the interest of helping bees and other pollinators in
Boulder county. We use homemade compost for fertilizer, which we get
from our llamas, goats, horses and chickens. We use organic soil mix for
the plants, organic cover crops and organic seeds. I have been keeping
bees for 20 years, and am very committed to keeping honey bees and
native pollinators thriving.
Located
about 10 miles north of Boulder, near Hygiene, we grow garlic on about
an acre (on our 27 acre farm), and have a greenhouse and cold frames
where we start our seedlings. We get a lot of produce for our family
from the big vegetable gardens, and our fruit trees when we have lucky
years. We don't sell from the farm- only at the Boulder Farmers' Market
where we're enjoying our 18th year. So many wonderful customers have
been coming to us for many years, and lots of people are just now
getting to know us as they plant gardens or learn about garlic.
I
started WeeBee Farms in 1995, while still working part-time at my
advertising business in Denver. Starting off selling a few garden
vegetables I quickly zoomed in on a niche after tasting six types of
garlics sent to me by an Oregon farmer. After
that I named myself the "Garlic Queen" and haven't looked back. My son
was born in 2002 and now he sells pea plants and flower seedlings in the
Spring and "lemon cucumbers" in late summer. My husband Jock helps
quite a bit now too since retiring from his cabinet business and he also
grows hay to sell and to feed our animals. Jock is the "Wee" (his last
name is Little) I am the "Bee" and our son is a little WeeBee.
The garlic we're selling now:
We
have had the biggest crop in 18 years! Thank the 10 inches of rain last
September, a snowy winter and moist Spring for that. We usually sell
out by early October, but this year it looks like we will have plenty of
garlic until November 1st or beyond. Here are two of our biggest sellers:
Inchelium Red - mild and sweeter. Can store to
January or longer. We're giving out tastes of this one at the market for
the next 3 weeks or so.
Chesnok Red- very flavorful and pungent. A great medicinal garlic with a high Allicin content.
There are 4 reasons I love to grow garlic
1)
The uniqueness and history of the different varieties. I love being a
part of something that's been going on for thousands of years- it helps
connect me to what's real
2) The sensual experience of touching and smelling the garlic, and seeing the colors and shapes of the bulbs and cloves
3) Being able to have and eat the different garlics and enjoy them at their peak of flavor.
4) The joy of sharing my love of garlic and of nature with my customers at the Farmer's Market.
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10/10/14
