Granby farm rebounds from bad ice storm with garlic bumper crop

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    GRANBY, CT (WFSB) — A garlic farmer in Granby is enjoying the sweet, potent scent of success.

Gary Cirullo of The Garlic Farm said an investment he made is paying off big time.

“We do throw a lot of money at this garlic,” Cirullo said. “We throw a lot of money in the ground. To get big garlic, good garlic, you got to throw a lot of money in the ground.”

He’s got about 20,000 pounds.

“It’s a big year,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of garlic.”

Cirullo said he’s in the midst hauling in his best harvest in a quarter century.

“It feels good pay some bills, pay some equipment off,” he said. “This and that all farmers like to see this, come up with a good crop.”

The smell of that success, however, is a little bit controversial.

Some people absolutely love it. Others not so much.

For Cirullo, it’s redemption.

“We had to bounce back,” he explained. “We came up with a plan and we just kept moving.”

His comeback started with a major setback. Back in 2018, a major ice storm wiped out nearly every plant he had.

“It was pretty devastating,” Cirullo said. “It took about, I would say, 14 minutes and when we got done, our entire crop was gone. And we looked at it and said ‘Wow this is tough.’”

Last year, The Garlic Farm made steady progress and now it is ready for a record-breaking summer as many customers who are stuck at home because of COVID-19 want to grow Cirullo’s garlic in their own gardens.

“Thousands of people are planting garlic now,” he said. “This is a good seed garlic, so this is what we are known for.”

Cirullo said the extra income is wonderful, but he believes his historic harvest can serve as a lesson to everyone. Beautiful things can grow out of difficult circumstances.

“All the time and all the work that goes into it, you really have to have something else in here to make it go,” he said.

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