We grow organic garlic at Wild Woods Retreat & Farm, and this bucket is proof of how slowly and steadily that's actually going. What's in it are bulbils: small, seed-like bulbs that form at the top of a garlic scape, the curling flower stalk that hardneck garlic sends up in early summer. They're not cloves and they're not true seeds, they're something in between, and until we grew garlic ourselves, we didn't know they existed.

We started small. Our first year, we planted 6 heads of garlic. This year, our second, we've got about 25 heads' worth ready to go back into the ground. If the pattern holds, next year should put us around 125. That's how garlic scales when you do it right: nearly everything you harvest each October goes back into the soil as next year's seed stock, not onto a plate. We replant about 99 percent of what we pull.

The bulbils are the exception, and the reward. Since they're not part of what we replant, we get to eat them, and they're genuinely good: a texture closer to a seed than a clove, with all the garlic flavor packed into something the size of a kernel of corn. It's one of those small surprises that comes from actually growing something yourself instead of just buying it at a store.

This is what "working farm" means in practice at Wild Woods: an organic garlic patch that started with 6 heads and a plan, growing a little more each October, alongside the chickens, the orchard, and everything else still being figured out. Come taste the difference organic garlic makes, and see what else is growing, during your stay.

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