Farmers & Farm Shops | The Really Garlicky Company
Glen Allingham is first and foremost a farmer. His wife Gilli is a trained cook. Like many a farming couple before them, about five years ago they took a long look at the farming business and thought a lot about diversification. They offered to try garlic, then under research by the Scottish Agricultural College. Perhaps it’s not the first crop which springs to mind when thinking about Scottish food, but Glen and Gilli Allingham are an example of the flexible open-minded approach on how to get the best from Scotland’s climate and soil. (Good job they didn’t believe in the rainy and cold exaggerated stereotype so beloved by certain people within the media.)
Anyway, after the trials it became clear that the long day length of the north, and the location near Nairn on the mild and sheltered Moray Firth in ‘the rain-shadow’ of the Grampians – which basically means enough but not too much moisture - agreed very well with certain types of garlic.
Ask about garlic varieties and Glen will offer a fascinating treatise on their different characteristics. But the key to the crop here on their farm is a variety called Music. This is a hardneck, porcelain garlic and their 30 acres is the first commercial porcelain garlic crop to be grown successfully anywhere in the UK. The everyday stuff you see in your local supermarket is probably a morado type garlic, with small bulbs and a harsh taste. Discriminating chefs and connoisseurs much prefer hardneck varieties which are larger and more mellow, in some cases positively buttery. (You could say it’s definitely a ‘single malt’ garlic.)
Naturally, as pioneers, introducing a new crop to Scotland has meant dealing with a few setbacks, including a problem with imported seed – solved by the Allinghams using in future their own micro-propagation methods, in order to be self-sufficient. Again, it’s a reminder of the resourcefulness of the successful farmer in Scotland, showing adaptability and being prepared to meet the challenges. For the Allinghams, in practical terms this means long days and early starts. There are harvesting squads to organise, couriers calling to uplift, and all the seasonal demands of other crops. It’s a seven day a week job. But quality shows. Rick Stein even nominated them as ‘Food Heroes’.
So, not only is the best garlic grown in the north of Scotland by The Really Garlicky Company, but this superior stuff in its distinctive purple packaging also flavours their cream cheese, garlic bread (naturally), aïoli, oatcakes and other lines. The produce is available at a range of outlets throughout the UK, as well as Inverness and Edinburgh Farmers' Markets.