Local Profile - Lee Towle Longview Garlic

I think part of the pull to the country for us was the true sense of community in small towns. City life is busy. We work, we rush and we often lose the connection with our communities. But in the country, life is slower, neighbours look out for you, and the locals know your name. The feeling of being part of something small and meaningful in a country town, is pretty hard to beat.

So in today’s journal entry, we chat (socially distanced of course) to one of Gunning’s locals – Lee Towle. We met Lee back in July last year when a mutual friend, Belinda from Tomolly in Carcoar, gathered a group of ladies from the Southern Tablelands at the Merino Café in Gunning. We had only been ‘in town’ for a couple of months so were definitely the ‘new kids on the block’. Belinda is a country girl and knows the importance of community and friendship when ‘moving in’ and she has a very special way of connecting people. She is one of this world’s true treasures.

From the minute you meet Lee, you can’t help but be swept up by her bountiful energy. A genuinely, supportive friend who has been cheering us on in the background since we arrived in Gunning.

Lee is a garlic farmer and we are fortunate enough to have this incredible product at our fingertips. A lot of people ask us ‘Why is it so good? What’s the difference?’ Trust us, there is a HUGE difference and you can taste every bit of it. Not to mention the ethically way it’s grown. But we’ll let Lee tell you her story….

Tell us a little bit about yourself?

My name is Lee and along with my husband Phil, dog Ginger and 52 sheep we live a rather woolly existence on a property outside the town of Gunning in the Southern Tablelands of NSW.  Before the move to Gunning we lived for 6 years in Canberra and before that Perth, WA. Before growing garlic my career was a mix of analytical roles, company development, the Australian Federal Aid programme (then known as AusAid) and finally founding the Australian arm of a disruptive UK online finance company. 

How long have you lived in Gunning and why did you make the move to the country? 
We moved to Gunning in October 2012. We spent the first 18 months living in a cottage in Warrataw St while we waited to get building approval for a new house build on our grassy paddock just outside of town. We had wanted to go rural for many years and spent some time investigating various locations.  Our goal was to create a more considered life. We wanted to build a minimalist, off-grid and debt-free house. We wanted to reduce our consumption of resources, become more independent, with plenty of space and activities to keep us fit. So it was about creating a quality of life that we could not satisfy in the city, any city.

Now tell us about your garlic story - how did it start and why?

I think like most folk I had this idea in my head of the type of life I wanted to live. Then as I tried to implement parts of it, I found the only way it was going to happen was if I did it myself. I wanted to eat organically grown, locally sourced seasonal food. I was really frustrated that I could not find garlic that fit this criterion.  So I had a go at growing some in a veggie patch and it worked a treat. Fast forward a few years and we are now living the dream in our grassy paddock, building our own house and garden and rural life.  At first we planted the garlic in the veggie patch.  Our friends would visit and hear all about our tales of misadventure on the tractor and the new plan for the rural dream.  They'd leave with a bunch of garlic and some home grown vegetables. Now, the home is still a work in progress but the garlic patch is well established.

What's the difference between Long View Garlic and the garlic at say, Coles?

The garlic bulbs you typically find at the large supermarkets are industrially produced, large and imported. To make the long journey it has to be sprayed to stop it sprouting, fumigated (with an ozone depleting chemical) to pass quarantine and then shipped around Australia to the shelves in the supermarkets. The bulb you see is not fresh, is grown for size not taste, chemically treated and fumigated, and has travelled a long way.

Longview garlic is grown for taste, with different garlic varieties to match different cultural dishes. Whilst garlic is grown globally, it is not the same garlic grown around the globe. We do everything by hand, and at a human scale to ensure a high quality product. Longview garlic is sold the season it is harvested, making it a much fresher and tastier product than any imported garlic.  We also produce green garlic, a seasonal delicacy we hope to bring to customers all year round because of its versatility and higher nutritional value.  We grow our garlic organically and pesticide free using innovative agricultural practices to regenerate the land. 

Where can we get your garlic?

Until our website is up and running we sell our garlic directly through an online subscription service via our Instagram site longview_garlic. We also have some local businesses that stock our products and we have a stall at our local Gunning Show in February each year. We will happily deliver garlic within a 1hr radius of Gunning and post orders to those further afield.

What are your plans and mission for your brand? 

Our focus is on growing high quality, nutritionally dense and flavourful culinary garlic. We also try to encourage folk to grow their own so we share our knowledge and experience where we can. We follow organic growing and regenerative agricultural practices and do all we can to ensure any packaging is either biodegradable, recyclable or re-usable. Currently we are a micro producer of garlic and we want to increase output in a way that ensures the human scale of production is maintained. So instead of investing in more heavy farm equipment to till fragile soils, we are increasing our planting density by using wicking beds. This growing intensity method is very water efficient, helps drought proof our business alongside working to protect and rehabilitate our soils. We are looking to expand our green garlic offerings this year, starting with garlic shoots right through to uncured bulbs.

Tell us something about yourself that not many would know?!!!

I co-authored a book with Brian Faulkner titled “Growing Beautiful Bee Gardens in the Southern Tablelands of NSW”. It is a compendium of the hardiest, easiest to source and grow plants for a bee friendly garden in our local area.

Want to know more or get your hands on Lee’s garlic? Drop her a line at hello@longviewgarlic.com.au or catch her on Instagram @longview_garlic