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 P
Made
in
dorset
L E N T Y 
Garlic
Crush
South West
Garlic
Higher Chilfrome farm,
Higher Drove, Chilfrome,
Dorchester DT2 0HU
0330 1137272
www.southwestgarlicfarm.co.uk
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I
t’s easy to forget that there was a time in this cosmopolitan
country of ours when the whiff of garlic coming out of a
restaurant marked it down as part of the World Food diaspora. Garlic
was Gallic, the butt of jokes, a source of embarrassment at a time when
dining meant dating. It may come as a shock, then, to discover that the
biggest source of elephant garlic in Europe is a hillside in Dorset, tended
lovingly by Mark and Wendy Botwright of South West Garlic.
For a farmer who is effectively the Pablo Escobar meets Pep Guardiola
of European garlic, Mark appears unassuming in his wellies and overalls.
But perhaps the down to earth look is appropriate for a man with almost
a million bulbs underground over 65 acres, a list of disciples that spans
Nigella Lawson, Mark Hix, Michel Roux and Yotam Ottolenghi, and
four Great Taste awards in the trophy room.
The story of how South West Garlic grew from a few bulbs to a UK
phenomenon is now the stuff of farming folklore but never gets old. After
foot and mouth forced Mark and Wendy to give up sheep farming in 1997,
Mark was inspired to start afresh with the gift of three garlic cloves from
Wendy. Planting these in a freshly dug patch of garden, Mark watched the
numbers grow steadily each year, passing 10,000 bulbs within a few years,
to just under a million elephant garlic bulbs today. Initially, Mark grew
garlic just to build the seed stock, which by 2016 was the largest in the
world, but the story hadn’t reached its climax yet.
Looking for a way to sell garlic in winter, Mark ‘discovered’ black
garlic, using a 4,000-year-old Korean recipe that preserves the bulbs
naturally and gives them the striking appearance and sweet, earthy
flavour. As black garlic continues to storm the culinary scene, Mark and
Wendy have continued to experiment with their range, which find their
way to farm shops and speciality retailers.
“Our range now includes Black Garlic Bulb, Peeled Black Garlic cloves,
Black Garlic Sea Salt, Wild Garlic Sea Salt, Black Garlic Sugar, Garlic Sea
Salt, Caramelised Onion Relish with BG, Piccalilli with BG and Tomato
and Chilli Relish with BG,” reveals Wendy. “We have also been working
with food manufacturers who are keen to use black garlic in sauces and
food products as far afield as Australia so watch this space!”
June also heralds the arrival of scape season. These are the delicate
stalks of the garlic flower with a peppery flavour and texture like
asparagus. Chefs love them, and they’re often gone as soon as they came.
It’s worth pointing out that neither scapes, black garlic nor elephant
garlic bears any resemblance to the bland, dry bulbs you’re buying in the
supermarket which have spent months in a chiller losing flavour and
were possibly fertilised (in the case of Chinese garlic) using untreated
human waste. Not so at South West Garlic farm. “We’ve spent a lot of
time adding lime to the soil to correct the pH,” says Wendy. “We now
have a pedigree herd of Hereford cows and use their dung as fertiliser.
Currently, the couple supplies regional farm shops, delis and speciality
retailers nationwide, as well as Covent Garden and Borough Markets. Get
your hands on some fresh scapes this month if you can, but otherwise look
out for the South West Garlic range at your local deli or farm shop. You’ll
be stunned at how just a few cloves can transform a dish into a Dorset-
flavoured classic.
www.menu-dorset.co.uk