Empress Farm

Empress Farm sits on the site of one of Mont Vernon’s historic hill farms — land that was worked, worn, and eventually left to the woods, as so many New England farms were. It was purchased and brought back to life, and the garlic fields you see today are part of that second act.

We chose Music garlic because it suits this ground: a porcelain hardneck that overwinters without complaint, throws scapes in July, and stores clean through winter. Every bulb is planted by hand, mulched by hand, and harvested by hand.

No canopy of marketing here — just the honest arithmetic of a small farm: careful seed, cold winters, and the long quiet months when the garlic does its work under the snow.

Music is the classic New England porch garlic — big, easy to peel, and honest about what it is. Porcelain hardnecks run four to six fat cloves per bulb under a smooth white wrapper blushed with purple at the shoulder.

In the kitchen it is a garlic’s garlic: hot when raw, deep and round when roasted, and it keeps months longer than softnecks when stored cool and dry.

In the garden it forgives a new grower. The scapes tell you exactly when it’s time, and the bulbs size up reliably even in short seasons.