Wyoming Garlic Farmers Raise 12,000 Super-Potent Bulbs In Shadow Of The Tetons

ALTA — It’s safe to say vampires aren't a problem for Michael and Julia Scheller.

The pair of self-proclaimed “garlicologists” are the owners of Garlic Fete, their homegrown garlic business that produces upward of 12,000 bulbs, or 5,000 pounds, of garlic per year. The business name uses the French word for “party,” and it’s no wonder why.

Garlic from the Schellers’ humble 3-acre farm is four times more potent than what you can buy at the grocery store, they say. Despite the pungent odor of garlic that permeates their home, Michael said their friends aren’t bothered by it.

If people are bothered, "those aren’t our friends,” Michael muses in a conversation with Cowboy State Daily.

Michael and Julia have been in the garlic business for more than eight years and offer a wide variety of products that will please even the most garlic-averse eaters. They regularly peddle the fruit of their labor at a farmers market in Driggs, Idaho, a 10-minute drive from their home in Alta, Wyoming.

One variety of garlic, Asian Tempest, goes best in Italian red sauce because of its sweetness. Montana Giant, on the other hand, is mild enough to eat raw or add to a light salad dressing.

Black garlic imparts something of a molasses-like flavor to dishes and can go on everything from pizza to meats.

Though the market is in Idaho, the Schellers make it clear their products are Wyoming-grown. Prominently displayed at their market stand are old-school Wyoming license plates and “grown in Wyoming” signage, illustrating which side of the state border their allegiances lie.

Wine, Chocolate and Garlic

On a sunny Friday afternoon in September, the Schellers are wrapping up a day of selling garlic at the Driggs Farmers Market. A customer approaches and buys $30 worth of garlic powder and garlic bulbs.

Julia says it’s a good sale, but not the biggest she’s ever gotten. One customer, she recalls, once scooped up $250 dollars’ worth of her wares. Online buyers, she said, stock up on even more, with one buyer splurging on $700 worth of garlic at a time.

These big buyers purchase their garlic, not for themselves, but as gifts for friends. The Schellers offer a variety garlic pack, which they say is commonly given as a gift.

“It’s like opening a box of chocolates,” Julia says. “Everyone who goes to a dinner party brings a bottle of wine, right? But not everyone drinks.”

One of their newer offerings is freeze dried garlic, which they produce thanks to an equipment grant from the Teton County Conservation District. Freeze drying, the Schellers explain, still provides all the health benefits of normal garlic while letting people enjoy it without the need for cooking.

Those with arthritis especially appreciate the minimal required preparation and ready-to-eat quality of freeze-dried garlic, the Schellers say.

Michael says his garlic has become a staple in his home cooking and has become a regular flavor enhancer for his favorite dishes. He even brings garlic along while hiking in the Grand Tetons because how else do you taste food at altitude?

Why Garlic?

While the Schellers always had a desire to raise crops, they said landing on garlic was something of a twist of fate.

Grapes are too expensive and difficult to keep alive in the harsh Wyoming winters and herbs are not involved enough to scratch their farming itch. Other common vegetables require more land than they had available, leaving them with little choice but to try their hand at planting garlic.

“Well, we love garlic,” Julia says of their thought process at the time. “And that was almost just it.”

The Schellers say they purchased a variety pack of garlic seeds and used a “little, tiny test plot” to see if anything at all would grow. To their surprise, 100% of the garlic grew into big healthy bulbs.

It was all the encouragement they needed to keep planting more, Julia says.

Salmon For Garlic

The Schellers regularly trade their garlic with other market vendors who offer their goods in exchange. Derek and Pip Depeiro, owners of Red Gold Salmon, eagerly offer up their smoked Alaskan salmon in exchange for garlic.

“We love his garlic man,” Derek says while shuffling salmon filets around in an ice box. “The crazy thing about his garlic is ‘it’s just garlic.’ But garlic is not just garlic.”

While the two have yet to work out a formal garlic to salmon rate of exchange, Derek says they just eyeball it based on the quality of the item being offered. Quality filets merit a couple bags of garlic, while smaller cuts can often go for just a few bulbs.

The Depeiros use the garlic they acquire to season other goods they acquire by trading with other vendors. He likened the experience to shopping at Trader Joe’s, but without the price tag.

“Half of the reason most of us go is to trade with each other,” Derek says. “This is where I get my f---ing groceries.”

Spike and Other Little Secrets

Back at his home in Alta, Michael shows Cowboy State Daily his array of farming implements, including a giant John Deere tractor. This older model, Michael says, was made before the addition of computers to farming.

“You don’t have to worry about software,” he says. “You don’t have to worry about the bomb dropping.”

Wheeling out his smaller two-wheeled tractor, Michael demonstrates how he preps his land for planting garlic. While it’s hard work tilling the earth, Michael says his view of the Grand Tetons makes it all worthwhile.

Once or twice per year, Michael will hike through the mountains to Jackson on the other side. He estimates it takes anywhere from 12 to 18 hours in the summer when days grow long.

“I don’t understand why people live on the other side,” he says of Jackson.

In addition to garlic, Michael grows an array of crops like beans, carrots and potatoes. He uses no herbicides or pesticides, meaning he must regularly spend hours pulling weeds.

Michael is serious about taking care of his soil and often rotates his crops. He also plants certain crops which he says can impart a special flavor to his garlic when it is planted there later.

That’s one of his many tricks of the garlic trade, which he says help make his job more interesting.

“We all have our little secrets to make farm work more enjoyable,” he says.

In the corner of his plot of land lies a massive wooden wheel outfitted with protruding stakes. Michael says he originally acquired it from the local electric company, which had been using it as a spool for wire.

The wheel, which he named Spike, aerates the soil when it is rolled over the soil and took the Schellers’ garlic operation from 3,000 bulbs per year to 12,000. The low-tech implement, he says, is more useful than anything produced by Big Tech.

“It’s the biggest game changer we have,” he says of Spike. “It’s not about AI. That’s a piece of wood.”

The Treasure Trove

Inside the Schellers’ home, the air is heavy with the pungent smell of garlic. That’s partly because they’re preparing a pork roast with plenty of garlic, of course.

It’s also because their home is stocked with thousands of bulbs of garlic, in an area which they refer to as their “treasure trove.”

The smell is so strong it can make your eyes water, but the Schellers say they’ve grown used to it over the years. In fact, they can’t even detect the smell of garlic anymore, they say.

While the project is something of a business, the Schellers handle the entire operation as a two-person crew. Hiring help and scaling their operation, they say, would just be too much of a hassle.

“There’s hours and hours of labor in these bags,” Michael says. 

Jackson Walker can be reached at walker@cowboystatedaily.com.