Garlic lovers can mark Sunday, August 2 on their calendars. That’s when Indian Creek Orchard Gardens will host the sixth edition of Garlic Nirvana, their annual garlic extravaganza, from 9am to 2pm at the farm at 919 Sugarbush Road in Pakenham. Admission is free, and the whole family is welcome!
The event is the first garlic festival of the season in this area, opening a run of celebrations that continues with the Perth Garlic Festival the following weekend (August 8 & 9) and the Carp Garlic Festival the weekend after that (August 15 & 16). For anyone planning a summer of garlic, Indian Creek is where it begins.
At the heart of the day is the farm stand, open the full five hours, where all 11 of Indian Creek’s heirloom garlic varieties will be available — as seed garlic, sold by the bulb or in bulk for gardeners planting this fall, or as culinary garlic sold by the braid, the pound, or in bulk for the kitchen.
The signature attraction is the Garlic Taste Testing, running from 9am to noon. Every variety will be offered both raw and roasted, so visitors can taste them side by side. As co-founder Scott Sigurdson explains, when you eat garlic on its own it is difficult to register the subtle nuances of any one variety. Tasted together, though, the differences are unmistakable — from the gentle, creamy Khabar to the fiery Northumberland, the hottest variety the farm grows. Not all garlic, as the saying goes at Indian Creek, is created equal.
From 1–2pm, visitors can “Meet the Garlic Guru.” Sigurdson, who has spent years obsessing over the crop, hosts an outdoor question-and-answer session open to all. It is a chance to pick his brain, get free advice, troubleshoot a problem patch, and learn the secrets behind growing big, healthy bulbs — everything from site selection and soil preparation to knowing when garlic is ready to harvest and how to cure and store it through the winter. Novice gardeners and seasoned growers alike tend to leave with more than they came for.
The varieties themselves are reason enough to make the trip. Indian Creek grows porcelain types such as Fish Lake 3, Ivan, Music and the formidable Northumberland, alongside purple stripes including Red Russian, Red Krandasgar, Purple Stripe and Khabar. Each was chosen for its flavour, colour and size — a gourmet palette curated over years to give cooks something far more interesting than the anonymous bulbs on a grocery-store shelf. Red Krandasgar, a favourite from the Black Sea region of Ukraine, is often described on the farm as tasting like an orchestra, with a pungent bass note and a sharp top note that builds on the tip of the tongue.
Indian Creek’s garlic is grown the way everything is grown on the farm: organically, with no chemical pesticides or fertilizers of any kind. Garlic is the farm’s single largest crop after fruit, planted across three acres of rented organic land. The beds are fed with tons of organic matter, local manure and bone meal, then mulched with oat straw from a neighbouring farm to buffer the bulbs through harsh Canadian winters. The garlic patch is moved every year so that pests and disease never get a foothold, and a cover crop of mustard is grown in rotation to act as a natural bio-fumigant.
Indian Creek Orchard Gardens is an organically managed micro-farm set on five acres along the Indian Creek, between Pakenham and Almonte in Mississippi Mills. Proprietors Scott Sigurdson and Marisa Buccione farm using a hybrid of regenerative agriculture, agroforestry and deep-organic practices, growing vegetables between rows of fruit trees, berry bushes and grapevines, with stretches of land left intentionally wild for pollinators, birds and beneficial insects.
Garlic Nirvana is a kid-friendly event — bring the children, pack a lunch, and take your time wandering the orchard garden. A couple of practical notes for visitors: there are no public restroom facilities on site, and guests are asked to please leave their dogs at home.
The farm is located at 919 Sugarbush Road, Pakenham. From Highway 29, turn south on Cedarhill Sideroad and turn right at the T; the farm sits on the shores of the Indian Creek. If you cross the bridge, you have gone too far. For more information, call 914–7444, email scott@indiancreekorchard.ca, or visit indiancreekorchard.ca.