In a fragrant warehouse on the outskirts of Madison, a handful of workers ship 70,000 pounds of garlic each year to gardeners and garlic lovers around the country.
Family-run Keene Garlic has been planting and foraging heirloom cloves since it started as Keene Organics 15 years ago. Back then, owner Keane Hollenbeck and wife Cindy Hollenbeck raised chickens and vegetables on their Marshall farm and set up stands at various Madison-area farmers markets.
In the year In 2008, they created a website to sell their garlic – one of their crops that ships well. They soon sold out, but when they went to the local farmers market, they noticed that other farmers still had plenty of garlic.
Those farmers began offering the Hollenbecks 50 or 100 pounds of their crops to sell. “It really started organically. And then they were like, I could plant more for her to sell next year,” Cindy said.
Lynne Phillips, an organic farmer who owns Rock Lake Organics outside of Lake Mills, prepares fresh garlic orders for customers at Kenne’s Garlic in Madison.
The company prides itself on paying farmers more per pound than some of the larger cooperatives. “We know what it takes to grow,” Cindy said. “For a farmer to know, ‘OK, I can plant a crop in the fall, and I know I’ll have a buyer in the summer’ … that’s very important to them.
Today, in addition to growing their own acres of garlic on land leased from Terra Growers in Waunakee, the family buys from about 60 small farms. Most are in Wisconsin, while others are in Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. All use organic practices, Cindy said, but not all have received organic certification.
Most of these farms grow one hectare or less of garlic for the company. That’s typically the highest yield a farmer can grow without having to use mechanical mowers and the like, Keane says. “You can do one more acre, the quality goes down,” Kane said.
40 species, 50 states
From its incredible warehouse at 4027 Owl Creek Drive, off Voges Road on Madison’s south side, the company sells about 40 varieties of garlic, most of them with big, fat clove heads. All can be eaten or planted, although Keane recommends planting the largest cloves, each of which should give its own jumbo head.
Twenty-five pound bags of Georgia Fire Garlic are packed and sold at Kenne’s Garlic in Madison.
“Look how beautiful this is,” said Cindy, pointing to the latest shipment of heads that had been trucked in from Hutterite Farms in Minnesota. “That’s not California garlic. That was brought up by… love and compassion.
Cindy said business at the warehouse has increased as people look for ways to eat healthier and grow their own food during the Covid-19 pandemic. The company has customers in all 50 states, she said, adding that Midwestern garlic, adapted to cold winters, seems to grow well everywhere.
One of the most popular varieties, the palm-sized German Extra Hardy, has a germination rate of over 99 percent. The company fills its website with advice on how to grow, harvest, cure and store garlic.
“That’s why we’re getting our customers every year,” she said. If their garlic grows and they succeed, they will return.
The crew sorts through each head, pulling out any that are damaged or too small, before packing and shipping. Last month, the company introduced a custom-made packaging machine designed to preserve the garlic without breaking it, in order to overcome the labor shortage. Only the strongest varieties go through the machine, while the most delicate ones are weighed and packed by hand.
Latisha Galvin holds, weighs, a head of garlic at Kenne’s Garlic in Madison.
“We only ship the best. If you’re not happy, we’re fixing it,” Cindy said. “We don’t want to spend our dime shipping back.”
Executives who don’t meet the company’s shipping standards often head to the kitchen in the back of the warehouse, where workers freeze or dry them to make condiments like garlic and pickled salt. They also sell a line of products made from garlic scapes, the green flower buds of the vegetable. Products that are more easily digestible than cloves offer an alternative to garlic for those with very sensitive stomachs. Cindy especially likes freeze-dried scallops, a non-salty snack. “This looks like a healthy funyun but… without all the bad stuff,” she said.
Other imperfect heads provide food storage crops for farms where children learn to grow their own crops, or farms like Forward Gardens in Middleton.
“If we can give them 50 pounds of garlic, they’ll produce like 300 pounds of garlic, and that goes a long way for our food pantries,” Cindy said.
‘Contagious’ hobby
At its peak, the company currently has ten employees, most of whom are current. The first customers will place their orders in March when the new online catalog is posted. Farmers began delivering fall crops in late August, and the company plans to ship each head within four weeks of arrival. The real deadline is the first week of October, because gardeners have until October 15 to plant cloves for the following spring season.
From left to right, Aaron Hollenbeck, Cindy Hollenbeck, Keane Hollenbeck and Bruce Reed run garlic pills in Madison. The couple’s sons, Aaron and Bruce, recently joined the company.
That means working “seven days a week, 20-hour days,” trying to ship at least 500 orders a day, Cindy said.
But it’s worth it when you think about the little financial security they give farmers and the happiness they give customers.
“You can see the satisfaction on their faces,” Keane said. “They write your letters and take your pictures[of the plants]… they love it.
“People are really excited about growing garlic,” agrees Cindy. “It’s contagious.”
The four questions
What are the most important values that drive your work?
Cindy: Being able to teach others how to grow garlic and provide high quality seed stock.
How are you creating the kind of community you want to live in?
Cindy: All of us who grow garlic live an organic lifestyle, so we believe we are making the world a better place just by providing it.
Keene: A cleaner food source.
Cindy: Yes, high-nutrient garlic – while not polluting our earth and grown organically. And then being able to take the cooperation of the farmers and we all work together as a team.
What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs?
Cindy: I’ve always been a do-it-yourselfer,[but]over the last few years we’ve had to really look at the resources available and take their knowledge and let them do what they do best. From finding someone to convert that (from region) to someone who does Google AdWords well… or naming a design.
Keene: Find an expert in their field to help you.
Are you hiring?
Cindy: Absolutely yes. We want to continue to expand Keene’s Garlic because we feel there is such a benefit to our community and local farmers in bringing Wisconsin produce to consumers. And we’re looking for other entrepreneurial-minded people who want to come and join our team.
