Garlic Harvesting, South Australia

Garlic harvesting at the
Clear Hills Biodynamic Garlic farm

Just a quick update from deep in the dusty trenches of an Australian biodynamic garlic farm! 

We are currently WWOOF’ing on a garlic farm in the McLaren Vale, Adelaide. Having seen an advertisement for casual workers in exchange for food and lodging we made contact, caught the train out of the city and here we are! 

Back of the farm

Another farm lake

Garlic harvesting tractor

The McLaren Vale is an hour south of Adelaide. Our main role has been to essentially harvest garlic, which is a dirty, dirty job but awesome fun! 

Colin, the farmer chugs his rusting red tractor over the field pulling the garlic up, we walk behind, shaking clumps of dirt to bring out the large white knobs of garlic and forming them into bundles. Then with blue twine we quickly tie them together and move on and Bob's your uncle! 



The field is so unbelievably dry and dusty and when we finish up every morning are coated in a layer of orange brown. It sticks to our skin, under our nails, clumps our hair and is in every nook and cranny. 

Piles of our garlic

Tooth brush and scissors- garlic cleaning
can be a little boring.....

As we bend forward collecting the garlic, we can feel the burning sun on our backs, oh its hot! On Wednesday we weren't surprised to see the temperature gauge hit a high of 41 degrees!! This week though it’s a cool 22/23 degrees and the fresh morning air invigorates the spirit. You never really know if you're in for a hot day or something more bearable, so we've tried to get on the field early and finish early.

Looking down across the farm

What we like is that life on the garlic farm is far from boring. We are boarding with a young German couple who are backpacking through Australia, a border collie puppy, an indoor chicken that thinks it's a cat, about 1000 millipedes and a wild fox that visits at night. 

Beautiful farm dog puppy!

Our ramshackle shed-house has minimal electricity, only cold running water and there's no toilet so it's a bit like camping. Surrounding the main neighbouring farmhouse is a large organic garden that we help water every day, and early each morning we make a mad dash across to use the outhouse. 

Yes, they still have an outhouse! 

The old wooden farm house, is over one hundred years old and was first built as a school at the turn of the century. 

Down across the padlock is a large murky dam, two happy alpacas and coming back round towards the road a hen house with twenty laying chooks. Outside the property, there are dozens of wild kangaroos roaming the farmlands and koalas hanging out in trees.

Friendly pet alpaca 

Spot the Koala

Rubbish around the farm

Firewood ready to chop!

It took us six days, working six hours a morning, one hour in the garden watering the plants and five on the field to finish the harvest. We finished several days ago and have now begun undertaking the garlic ‘clean’ which comprises of sitting in a large corrugated barn scraping off all the aforementioned dry and dusty dirt. During this time of contemplation we are considering our next move. We have applied for and are waiting to hear back on several job applications (Including some orange picking at the Murray river or station hand work in Alice springs). Fingers crossed! 

In the little red beast (which we only had to push start twice),
on the way into Hardy's!

With our afternoons, we borrow the little worn out communal farm car and head out exploring. The car is not exactly a go getter and needs a forceful push to get going, but makes the distance.

On Saturday morning the four of us squished in and drove into town. First we stopped at the visitor information centre and learnt there are 82 cellars in the immediate region of which around 50 have cellar doors open to the public.

Maslin Beach, Noorlunga, SA

Equipped with a wine map we enthusiastically set off! 

The McLaren vale region, close to the sea and with dry arid temperatures, is renowned for its Shiraz and old style wine. Also in abundance growing in farms along the road are olives and a summer favourite gorgeous little red strawberries!! 

Toasting Marshmallows at night

Unfortunately, after a hearty effort we only managed to visit seven wineries and a small brewery on day one, wiped out we returned to the farm. 

We would love to visit all the vineyards, we're sure it can be done, but it's a big commitment. Perhaps we just need to start off earlier, or do a few every day. 

This afternoon, we're off to visit the beach before we head back to the methodical and serious business of garlic cleaning tomorrow. 

Tot siens 

John and Kara