Eden » Pete Rasmussen initially planned to get a degree in marine biology, working with dolphins, whales and sharks along the California coast. Instead, the 26-year-old has cultivated a different dream in the hills of Northern Utah, farming more than two dozen different types of garlic.
"Garlic is the most beautiful plant I've met in the garden," Rasmussen said. "Humans have a long history with it because it's native to ancient Rome, China, Greece, Mesopotamia and Egypt. It's just amazing that all those different cultures recognized it to be a powerful medicine and they began to cultivate it, and from that grew all these hundreds of different varieties."
Sandhill Farms farmer Pete Rasmussen grows an assortment of crops, which are carried and used by many local restaurants and markets. Lately, he has focused on his garlic harvest, which boasts over 20 varieties of bulbs. (Leah Hogsten/ The Salt Lake Tribune)
the differences at a garlic tasting this weekend during the second Garlactica festival at Rasmussen's four-acre Sandhill Farms in Eden, about 20 miles east of Ogden.
The growth cycle of garlic, Rasmussen says, is a lot like a baby: Individual cloves are planted in the fall before the soil freezes. In early spring, the plant's leaves sprout, but the bulbs themselves are not ready to be pulled up for another nine months. After harvesting, the bulbs must "cure" for another two weeks to allow the flavors and colors to mature.
On his farm -- named after the giant Sandhill cranes that frequent the area -- Rasmussen grows more than 25 different varieties of garlic with names such as Siberian, Mango Sunrise and Muski. Rasmussen's favorite this season is the Romanian Red, because of the appearance of its plump cloves wrapped in a pearly white, satiny cover, and a flavor that he calls "invigoratingly hot."
Rasmussen grows mostly hard-neck varieties of garlic, which are typically grown in northern states because of their ability to withstand changing temperatures, and are distinguished in appearance by dark red or purple stripes.
In addition to garlic, Rasmussen grows a wide variety of vegetables for his Community Supported Agriculture program, which has about 50 subscribers who pay $200 for the season and receive a weekly delivery of salad greens, herbs, garlic and a seasonal vegetable, currently Yukon Gold potatoes.
Rasmussen's organic produce is sold at farmer's markets around the Salt Lake valley, as well as at Salt Lake City's Liberty Heights Fresh market, and beginning in late August, area Whole Foods groceries. Other clients include locally owned restaurants, such as Rooster's Brewing Company in Ogden and Pago in Salt Lake City.
"If you buy local and get fresh products, you try to highlight the products rather than burying them in other flavors," said Scott Evans, owner of Pago, who has been buying Rasmussen's produce for about a month. "I want to have an intimate knowledge of all the products we're working with, and when you see the guy drop off this week's produce, there's something really cool about that. Buying local is important. It [takes] 10 times longer to arrange and organize with the local farmers than it is to call a major source and order everything at one time, but it's definitely worth it."
Rasmussen, born in Salt Lake City and raised in Port Townsend, Wa., has been farming on the land where his parents live for five years, but his roots as an entrepreneur are much longer than that. At age 6, Pete dug up carrots and onions from the family garden, recalls mother Marsha Rasmussen, and sold them to neighbors for 25 cents.
Now, Pete Rasmussen hopes to one day turn the family land into not just a business, but an ecological research farm. "I see it being a gathering place to experiment with different kinds of food and to continue community-supported agriculture," he said.
At first glance, that dream feels a world away from marine biology, which is what he was planning to study when he entered college at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he began serious experiments with organic farming. But when he talks about the science of farming, which led him to change his major to biological agriculture, you can hear the echoes of his original interests.
"It's the most amazing mixture of science and intuition," he said. "I have to assess the sunlight, water, plant growth, soil compound, and the more I learn about creating [an organic] productive farm, the more I start to realize how much there is to learn from plants."
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