Kranz Family Garlic

Kranz Family Garlic Kranz Family Garlic is a small family farm that strives to grow various varieties of hardneck garlic in central Pennsylvania using organic practices.

We have 100s of large garlic bulbs for sale $1 per bulb for fall planting. Varieties include German Extra Hardy, Music, ...
10/12/2025

We have 100s of large garlic bulbs for sale $1 per bulb for fall planting. Varieties include German Extra Hardy, Music, Chesnok Red (spicy), and Ivan. Austin Kranz Katelyn Nicole

And just like that the garlic harvest for 2024/25 is in the books! Our next step is to dry and cure our bulbs for severa...
07/04/2025

And just like that the garlic harvest for 2024/25 is in the books! Our next step is to dry and cure our bulbs for several weeks. Happy 4th of July! Katelyn Nicole Austin Kranz

Its that time of year again! Garlic scapes are being harvested over the next few weeks. This year we are offering our sc...
06/05/2025

Its that time of year again! Garlic scapes are being harvested over the next few weeks. This year we are offering our scapes for sale as the size and quality has finally met our expectations. We are selling our scapes for $5/lbs or if you would like to try them without committing to a whole pound we are selling a bunch of 10 scapes for $1. Quantities are limited so come get your scapes today.

If you have never had scapes before they are great for grilling, sautéed, chopped green in a salad, dehydrated into garlic salt or made into a fresh garlic compound butter. The options are endless! They're just as spicy as regular garlic but can be cooked like an onion and are particularly excellent in a chimichurri with steak.

Also be on the look out for a limited sale of our own garlic cloves after harvest coming in July!

Austin Kranz Katelyn Nicole

Its an exciting and rainy day! Our newest tool to help us in our garlic operation has arrived! Most small scale garlic p...
05/21/2025

Its an exciting and rainy day! Our newest tool to help us in our garlic operation has arrived! Most small scale garlic production is done almost entirely by hand. From planting, fertilizing, w**ding, harvesting, sorting, grading, and pre-planting 95% of our operation is done by hand hour by hour. To improve out process we purchased a Thiessen Undercutter from Tilmor!

The Undercutter will attach to the 3pt hitch on our tractor and with its angled blade will dig underneath the garlic beds at harvest time and lift the bed up separating and loosening the soil and garlic. Historically, we have harvested our garlic in July painstakingly slowly with shovels and pitchforks trying very carefully to pull our harvest from the dry and compacted soil in the Pennsylvania summer heat. This practice took us multiple hours to complete on a crop 1/3 the size of what we currently have planted. Our hope is this new tool will reduce our harvest time dramatically as we continue to expand our operation.

Halfway through the growing season and the different growth patterns between the varieties is startling. Our Porcelain v...
05/18/2025

Halfway through the growing season and the different growth patterns between the varieties is startling. Our Porcelain varieties (Ivan, Music, & German Extra Hardy) are growing strongly with a majority over 1.5" stems predicting larger bulbs to be harvested in the coming months. Our Purple Stripe varieties (Chesnok Red, Dunganski, & Persian Star ) are showing slightly less growth and less consistency. While our Rocamble varieties (German Red & Bavarian Purple) are doing the poorest overall.

Rocambole garlic in general can be a bit more touchy in comparison to other varieties and require extra care when grown. While progress so far as been slow theres still time for these plants to fill out and produce respectable bulbs before harvest in July.

Spring has certainly sprung! All of our garlic has sprouted with the Music, Ivan, and German Extra Hardy varieties takin...
04/18/2025

Spring has certainly sprung! All of our garlic has sprouted with the Music, Ivan, and German Extra Hardy varieties taking the early lead. Now begins the weekly task of w**ding, fertilizing, and watering. Austin Kranz Katelyn Nicole

Planting week! It's an oh so hectic time getting our garlic prepared to plant. We usually start the week separating 100s...
10/12/2024

Planting week! It's an oh so hectic time getting our garlic prepared to plant. We usually start the week separating 100s of garlic bulbs into 1000s of individual cloves. Next we sterilize our cloves to minimize the risks of disease in our crop. Followed by a soothing multi-day fertilizer soak. While our cloves soak in all the winter nutrients they can handle We start preparing out beds by using a dibbler to mark where cloves will be planted. Once we drop a clove into its assigned hole we add several inches of our homemade organic compost. A final layer of organic straw mulch purchased locally in East Berlin becomes our winter/spring w**d barrier and helps insulate our cloves over the winter. In 4hours of hardwork with the whole family we planted over 3000 cloves!

With the end of the heat wave so to ends our garlic harvest for the 2023/24 season. We harvested over 1000 bulbs between...
06/23/2024

With the end of the heat wave so to ends our garlic harvest for the 2023/24 season. We harvested over 1000 bulbs between our 9 garlic varieties and have already started planning for the fall 2024 planting season.

Today we pulled the last of the scapes from our planted garlic. Scapes are the flowering stem of a garlic plant that wil...
06/08/2024

Today we pulled the last of the scapes from our planted garlic. Scapes are the flowering stem of a garlic plant that will bloom if left on the plant. Alternatively scapes can be harvested as soon as the stem emerges or after it has curled several times. Eventually the stem will straighten and the flower will bloom. Most growers will harvest these scapes as soon as they emerge, which tells the plant its time to start growing the bulb. 2-4 weeks after scapes are harvested the plants will start drying and the bulbs will be ready for harvest.

We use our scapes in several ways. We make them into garlic salt, garlic powder, sometimes we grill them or we sautée them.

We follow practices described in the Living Soil Handbook by Jesse Frost which provides all the instruction needed to pr...
04/19/2024

We follow practices described in the Living Soil Handbook by Jesse Frost which provides all the instruction needed to produce organic compost our plants need.

First garlic update of the season. Our growing operation is in full swing, with plenty of fresh compost in development f...
04/19/2024

First garlic update of the season. Our growing operation is in full swing, with plenty of fresh compost in development for the fall planting season. Currently we have 9 varieties of hardneck garlic planted. With each variety showing it's specific characteristics. Interestingly enough our German Extra Hardy has taken off with most plants reaching over 30" tall a sure sign of large bulbs to come.

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York Springs, PA
17372

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