About Us

Garlic in March

Nestled in a small mountain valley in Peru Mills, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, lies a small piece of fertile land stewarded by Patrick Ciarrocchi and family since 2015. These 21 acres or so were part of a much larger tract owned by various branches of the Patterson family since 1810. Prior to the mid 1700s, this area was home to various indigenous American tribes including the Tuscarora people (from North Carolina) of which the mountain to our east is named. We are located at the top of the Willow Run watershed, which feeds the Tuscarora Creek and then the Juniata River, then the Susquehanna to the Chesapeake Bay. We have set to revitalizing the old farm and develop the place into a premier example of human scale organic agriculture. 

We currently specialize in our own landrace strain of hardneck garlic we call Juniata Garlic. It is largely a porcelain type of hardneck garlic started with a number of different lots of "Music" seed garlic in 2022. Each year we select the best seedstock for replanting and each year our Juniata Garlic adapts more to the soils and climate on our farm. The Central Pennsylvania mountain valleys are ideally suited to produce some of the highest quality hardneck garlic in the world. 

Garlic hanging in barn
We currently have 1.5 acres of land in crop production, with only a third of this being garlic. We plant about 64,000 cloves per acre of garlic- each clove by hand. We practice crop rotation and with that comes more tasty things to eat! Keep an eye out, or better yet sign up for our newsletter as we have a number of other awesome organic products coming to market soon. Hint: dry beans, popcorn and much more! We plan to plant out one acre for the 2026 garlic crop with 3 acres in crop production. The rest of our land is mostly meadow, with a little woods, a fledgling orchard, and the house, barn, and old country store.

Wheelbarrow of compost
We use no pesticides or herbicides in our production and are committed to using minimal plastic on the farm and none in our shipping. Most tasks are done with human hands and simple tools. We do utilize power equipment such as tillers and mowers when it makes sense to do so but not as a default. We scythe and rake our mulch material and make our compost by hand and take great joy in the craft of human scale farming with all the benefits it entails for the farmer, for the land, for the plant and animal beings we share the farm with, for the eaters. This, however, is not the fastest or cheapest way, but we believe it is has its place. We thank you for supporting this vision and we look forward to bringing you the highest quality, nutrient dense and full of flavor organic produce available. 

Barn with blue sky

Contact Us