Natalya Lowther doesn’t just like the way garlic tastes. She likes the way it looks, too.

“My personal fascination with garlic goes back decades to when I was an art student at K-State in ’78 or ’79. Garlic was one of the subjects of a lot of my drawings and prints that I made. I was just fascinated with the shape and form of it, the contrast between the smooth skin and the roots,” Lowther says.

A few years later, she worked for the Manhattan Mercury, doing paste up and illustrations for the some of the newspaper’s special sections. One of her assignments was to do a food page illustration on — you guessed it — garlic.

“My next great boost in the world of garlic was when I discovered the garlic press. Some housemates of mine introduced me to the wonders of it, so I graduated from (using) dehydrated garlic to fresh garlic for everything,” she says.

How does Lowther feel about garlic these days?

“It’s not even in the realm of spice — it’s a staple (in her cooking). If it doesn’t have salt, fresh ground pepper and garlic in it, then it better have milk, sugar and butter.”

Luckily, Lowther has plenty of fresh garlic on hand.

She’s the owner of Pinwheel Farm, an 11-acre property at 1480 N. 1700 Road, just outside North Lawrence. She raises sheep, chicken, ducks and geese, as well as a variety of vegetables: specialty potatoes, heirloom tomatoes, spring greens, beans, peas, onions and leeks.

Oh, and garlic, too. She started growing it for her own personal use six or seven years ago. Lowther sells her produce at the Lawrence Farmers Market in the 1000 block of Vermont Street. The garlic sells for 50 cents per pound.

Barbara Clark has been selling garlic at the Lawrence Farmers Market for nine seasons. Some customers call her the garlic

Growing garlic — it comes into season in early July — just makes sense for someone like Lowther who also raises sheep for meat, milk and wool.

“Garlic is essential when you’re cooking lamb. It’s a ‘go with,’ something that people will buy when purchasing lamb from me. They’re a natural complement,” she says.

Homemade garlic conserve

Lowther is one of several vendors who sell garlic at the market. But the reigning queen of garlic, at least in Douglas County, is Barbara Clark.

Clark, and her husband, David Clark, own Maggie’s Farm, a 20-acre property at 2050 E. 1550 Road, two miles north of Lawrence Municipal Airport.

She’s in her ninth season of selling garlic, heirloom tomatoes, fingerling potatoes, squash and cucumbers at the market.

“I’ve actually heard people say, ‘There’s the garlic lady,'” Clark says, laughing.

Garlic bulbs are a popular item at the Lawrence Farmers Market. These bulbs are from Barbara Clark's farm in North Lawrence.

Clark grows three varieties of garlic: soft neck, which is typically sold in grocery stores; hard neck; and elephant garlic, large bulbs that have a mild flavor.

Her soft-neck and hard-neck varieties cost $1 per bulb; the elephant garlic is $3 per bulb. She also makes and sells garlic braids, which generally have between 10 and 12 bulbs in them. Cooks who buy them can simply break off bulbs as they’re needed.

“A little later in the season, I make something called garlic conserve. It has gobs of garlic, balsamic vinegar, white wine and honey, and it’s cooked until it’s almost a syrup,” she says.

“The easiest way to use it is to cook pasta, put a couple of tablespoons of conserve in it, toss it up and put Asiago cheese on it — you have yourself a great meal.”

Clark plans to start making her garlic conserve again in a few weeks. She sells it for $6 per jar.

One of her favorite ways to enjoy garlic is to simply roast it on the grill, with whole bulbs nestled in kosher salt inside a terra cotta flower pot saucer.

The garlic on the left is called soft neck, which is typically found in grocery stores. The garlic on the right is known as elephant garlic. It has a mild flavor.

“What you do (when it’s ready) is squeeze the whole bulb, and the cloves are soft, translucent and caramelized. We usually have crusty bread with it, or mix it with butter and put it on sweet corn and other vegetables,” she says.

Health benefits

Richard Bean is best known in Douglas County for his honey — he’s the owner of the Blossom Trail Bee Ranch, 467 E. 1000 Road, about six and a half miles west of Baldwin.

But Bean, who has been keeping bees for the past 30 years, also sells garlic alongside honey at the market.

“All the garlic I grow is what I can handle by myself. It’s certainly a cash crop for me. I grow something that I call spring garlic; it’s still in a nice, tight bulb, and the outer skin is very fragile. It’s one that I continue to plant from my previous crop,” Bean says.

He sells his garlic for 50 cents per bulb. He sells the larger ones for $2 per three bulbs.

“I love the flavor of garlic, but I also believe in its health and nutritional value. I believe it’s like a natural antibiotic. I think it’s something that everybody should eat every day,” Bean says.

“If I cook something and I’m eating it, it’s probably got garlic in it. It’s a very common element in my cooking. I think it’s extremely good for respiratory problems, colds, things like that. That’s not scientific, but that’s my testimony.”