Garlic is packaged so it can breathe. Cure it first, dry and airy for a few weeks after harvest, then sell it in mesh bags, which show the bulbs and let air through, or kraft paper bags, which breathe and keep the light out. Sealed plastic traps moisture, and moist garlic molds or sprouts. Restaurants and co-ops buy by the box, and softneck garlic can be braided, which makes the braid the package and earns a higher price. A bag of whole garlic carries its name, the variety, the net weight and your farm's name and place, and a grocer who buys it has to tell shoppers its country of origin, so you pass that on. In the example below, a Colorado garlic farm prices four options: 17 to 23 cents a pound. Below are the options, the label, the example, and a free cost calculator.
The short version
- Cure garlic before packing it: dry and airy, out of the sun, for a few weeks.
- Mesh bags breathe and show the bulbs: the market and grocery pack.
- Kraft paper bags breathe and keep out light: good for seed garlic and shipping.
- Restaurants and co-ops buy 10 lb boxes.
- Softneck garlic braids; hardneck doesn't, because of its stiff stalk.
- Never sealed plastic: moisture means mold and sprouting.
- Label the name, variety, net weight and farm; pass the country of origin to grocers.
- TaroStack keeps each harvest's lot, and which lot went to which customer. More below.
The options
| Option | Breathes | Shows the garlic | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mesh bag with a header label | Yes | Yes | Markets and grocery shelves |
| Kraft paper bag with a label | Yes | No | Seed garlic, online orders |
| 10 lb box | Yes, with vents or open flaps | When opened | Restaurants, co-ops |
| Braid with a tag | Yes | Yes | Gifts, markets, softneck varieties |
The label and the country of origin
Whole garlic is a single-ingredient food, so a bag needs no ingredient list: the name, the variety if you name one, the net weight, and your farm's name and place. A grocer selling fresh vegetables labels their country of origin under USDA's COOL rule, and a supplier passes that on, on the bag, the box or the invoice; how it works is in country of origin labeling requirements. The rest of a label is in food labeling requirements for small business.
An example: four options for a garlic farm
Paonia Mesa Garlic, the made-up garlic farm in Paonia, Colorado, I use in these examples, sells about 40 pounds a week of culinary garlic in season, at a market, to a grocery co-op and to two restaurants:
| Option | Parts | Per pound | 40 lb a week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mesh bag, 1 lb, with a header label | Bag 12¢, label | $0.17 | $6.69 |
| Kraft paper bag, 1 lb, with a label | Bag 19¢, label | $0.23 | $9.30 |
| 10 lb box for restaurants | Box $1.80, label, per pound | $0.19 | $7.49 |
| Braid, about 1 lb, with a tag | Twine, tag | $0.19 | $7.49 |
Market and co-op garlic goes in mesh, restaurants get boxes, and the seed garlic ships in kraft bags labeled with the variety. On garlic that sells for $14 a pound, a 17-cent mesh bag is about 1% of the price, so the package choice is about what keeps the garlic best, not what it costs. What the farm earns is in garlic farm business plan, and every packaging cost in packaging cost per unit.
Get the calculator
Download the garlic packaging calculator. Two sheets: components, each part of each option with its pack price, units, how many a pound uses and waste; and compare, each option's cost per pound and per week at your volume, with notes. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
One harvest becomes culinary garlic, seed garlic, braids and boxes, each going to different customers. A cost sheet doesn't say which field's garlic went to the co-op, or how much seed garlic is left to ship.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each harvest's lot, and which lot went to which customer.
Each harvest a lot. A harvest is received with its lot and date, so culinary and seed garlic from the same field trace back to it.
Bagging as a batch. Bagging is a batch that takes the garlic and the bags off stock, so the cost of a bag of garlic includes the bag, at the price you paid.
Where it went. Each order records the lots it got, so one recall report shows every customer a lot reached, and counting the barn works on a phone with no signal.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Which harvest went to the co-op | Not recorded | The lot on its order |
| Seed garlic left to ship | Counted in the barn | Stock by item and lot |
| What a bagged pound costs | Worked out once | Each batch's true cost |
Lots, batches, recipes and true cost are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.