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Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

July 4, 2014 by Valerie Lugonja 18 Comments

 A Canadian Food Hero from Prince Edward Island

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

This past May, Vanja and I traveled through the Atlantic Provinces after the Slow Food in Canada National Conference in Tatamagouche. After a call out for not-to-miss spots, Lindsey and Dana had Al Picketts on their list with a message to “bring back as much of his black garlic you can possibly pack in your suitcase”! Having only heard of Black Garlic the year prior, seeing it sold at our local Italian Centre Shops and at the City Market Downtown, Al went on “the list.”

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

I called him to make an appointment to see his operation and to put him on our itinerary. An hour and a half later, I was in love. Seriously. I could not wait to meet Al “in the flesh”. Yes. His story is that captivating. “Well, don’t expect much, Valerie. I’m really not much.” He said that at least a couple of times when I expressed my delight in connecting with him and zeal about our future meeting. I could not disagree more. The Canadian Food Experience Project Challenge for April 2014 is to highlightA Canadian Farmer or Producer. I choose Al!

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

It all started with bees. Seriously. Al was a very successful and very happy honey bee farmer. However, when his hives died due to pesticide use by surrounding grain farmers, he decided to grow garlic. All kinds of garlic. Almost every kind of garlic. He is most famous for his garlic seed, knowledge of garlic varieties, and his innovative sustainable farming practices.

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

He had heard of black garlic, however, and asked a friend going to Paris to bring him back some. She brought back two bulbs, one for him and one for her. He still has the original wrapper it came in. “She paid about 160 dollars a pound when I translated the amount from the ounce she bought. That 40 grams from Paris was 16 dollars. It was pretty tasty stuff and I wondered about how it was made.” (photo above by Le Jardin du Village)

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

Al read, researched, experimented, and deeply pondered the possibilities. Black Garlic processes were saturating his brain and one night, “the final push of how to do it came to me in my sleep”; he dreamt the solution. Seriously. He got up in the wee hours, and went right to work building the strategy that came to him in his dream. Thus, the name of his company: Eureka Black Garlic!

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

Suffice it to say that it involved an old electric water heater, a circulation pump that he had used during his honey operation, an old fridge that was turned into a cooker and more miles of copper tubing than he could possibly recall. He added “more and more and more” until what he built and what he had envisioned were the same.  He can control the temperature of the fridge and has it padded to keep the heat inside. The beauty of this operation is multi-fold; how intently small it is, how primitive it appears, how he was able to use items he had on hand (with the exception of the copper tubing) and how truly brilliant it is. This little old unsuspecting apparatus makes the best black garlic in the world.

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

The copper tubing is there, but has turned that blue silvery colour with the humidity. Can you see it under the bottom and along the sides? Now, I have not tasted all of the black garlic in the world. That is true, but I have tasted what is known to be amongst the very best and it is delicious, but the texture is quite simply off putting. Al has been able to create a texture within his Eureka Black Garlic that is fork mushy tender and melts on the tongue.

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

Al told me that chefs told him they liked the taste and the colour of the Korean Black Garlic, but didn’t like how dry and rubbery it is and hard it is to work with to turn into a sauce. Al said, “They told me that it is like chopping up gummy bears. We want something that is moist, that you just squish out with your thumb, and I thought: I can do that, so I aimed for it without a clue how. And now, you can mash my Eurika Black Garlic with a fork and blend it into a sauce in seconds!” (For the first recipe I have made using it, check this out.)

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

Al’s Eureka black garlic is sweeter than the Korean black garlic. It melts on the palate and all corners of one’s taste spectrum kicks into gear as this morsel hits all the high notes: sweet and salty with an umami-whammy! The flavour profile can be compared like this: Black Garlic is to raw garlic as the White Truffle is to a Button Mushroom. Completely different, yet in some ways, similar. The deeply earthy sweet almost Balsamic note provides a foundation for a gentle spicy garlic kick and subtle sour-sweet Tamarind likeness. Couple this novel umami laden flavour mixed with the unexpected butter like texture and you will find yourself having a “Eureka” moment. There is simply nothing else like it, anywhere.

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

“Chefs love mine as the Korean tastes a little burned and makes a grainy sauce with a bit of a grit. Mine has no graininess.” Al relates matter-of-factly. “We haven’t figured out the shelf life yet. I have ½ pound in a ziplock freezer bag in back seat of my car and it is still perfectly good. It’s been there a year 3 months.” (April 2014)

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

Did I say he has a sense of humor? One can imagine the aroma when opening the door on a simmering day with a bag of this black gold in the back seat. “I cook it for 23 days. Some people will say 30 days and some will say 60 days. If I have my temperature just right, it takes 21 days. I do 23 to get it extra black. When as moist like mine it is more of a deep chocolaty brown than a black. The Korean is darker, but I go a couple more days for the colour. The flavor is set at 21 days, though. It takes another 3-5 days to cool and dry. It gets dumped onto screens in a smaller room with a de-humidifier that cools it down and dries it up.”

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

Noting the tremendous product he has created and the potential for this business, Al’s response, “I am as low key as you can possibly get. I would far rather have people enjoy it rather than make a lot of money out of it.” This man walks his talk. He is remarkably generous with his time. Though his product is much superior to any other on the market at the present time, he sells it for half price of the Korean black garlic wholesale price. That would now be about 60-80 a pound; Al sells the Eureka Black Garlic for 30 a pound. One hundred, if you buy 4 pounds. “Should I charge the same as the Korean stuff ? People are always telling me that it is a different product and much better and that I should be charging more, but I don’t want my business to grow. I like it how it is. It works for me.”

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

At this point, I could stand it no longer. I couldn’t wait until after the conference to taste this garlic. I could hardly wait until the next day. I wanted everyone at the conference to taste this product, so made arrangements with Al to ship a 1 pound bag with medium and smaller than medium bulbs to Tatamagouche in time for sharing. How will I pay you: PayPal, e-transfer? “You’re comin’ to see me, aren’t ya? You can pay me then.” That kind of says it all. I was enraptured. Trust and integrity are not as common as they once were in my personal landscape. I value both above all.

And the above letter was taped to the box the garlic was mailed in that was shared with my enamored Slow Food in Canada colleagues; however, I hadn’t seen it, so when we arrived, were ready to pay. “What the heck are you doin’? Didn’t ya get my letter?” I cherish this letter, though I was going to write about the Eurika Black Garlic anyway. We paid for the black garlic we brought home, I will add. I fervently believe in paying our farmers a fair price for their produce. This is a very fair price.

Al charges:

  • 2 dollars for a small bulb in an individual bag for tasting
  • 50 gram bag – 2-3 bulbs – small ones 5 dollars
  • ½ pound is 17 dollars
  • 1 pound for 30 dollars
  • 4 pounds for 100 dollars

Most restaurants buy 4 pounds for 100 dollars; however, he has one sauce maker that buys a 50 pound tote and he packages that one in large and extra large bulbs so it is less work for them. You can buy it from him and trust that he will mail it to you when he says he will. Simply email him here: al@eurekagarlic.ca

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

Remember that he said, “Don’t expect much because I’m not much.”? When we arrived at our appointed time, there was another couple there taking notes fervently and trying to get all of Al’s secrets out of him. He was hilarious. They didn’t even catch on at first. “What temperature do you cook the garlic at?” The gentleman asked. “Well, if you knew that,” Al remarked, ” You’d be in the bottom of my compost pile.”

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

This is a guy with a sense of humor, let me tell you. He doesn’t miss a beat or crack a smile when he cracks a joke. He is the ultimate hoot! We enjoyed our time with him so much, yet we were on a rather tight schedule. I had save a couple of hours for Al, but that would never be enough. “Finally, I just said, I am so sorry, Al, but we are going to have to leave.” We hadn’t really talked at all. Just listened to his conversation with the couple, yet that was enjoyable on its own. “Don’t you want to see the garlic in the fields?” expressing shock that we would leave without the full meal deal. “Of course, we absolutely do!” And out we went.

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

This is truly a man out-standing in his field. (That one’s for you, Al!) Above is the Spring garlic field. I haven’s had success with Spring garlic. It doesn’t grow into a bulb for me; the planted clove may become 2 or three, but it has been disappointing.

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

He told us that he may have to hire two people this summer as he is growing more and more garlic all of the time which is the main thrust of his business as he sells 83 varieties of seed garlic. He only uses 2 or three of these to make the black garlic with. We were headed back to the other side of the farm to the field planted last fall with the 83 varieties.

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

Al explains: “There are 11 main types, but you won’t see the Middle East type around here. I only grow 8 types and each type can have many varieties. For the black garlic, I use the Rocambole and Porcelain kinds, though the Purple Stripe Marble would work well. I have also used the Artichoke and Turban, but don’t like those as they are too soft. In a ½ pound bag, they get squashed and make a big mess. So, I use a firmer variety and use the Rocambole, mainly because the Porcelain is not quite as sweet as the Rocambole.” If you look carefully above, you will see little green shoots of garlic rearing their heads between the straw.

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEIAl Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

Can you see them now?

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

He’s marked the rows with his old honey bee pegs. Interestingly, he never uses the same field again. He leaves the field so rich from the composition of soil he places on it to plant the garlic in, that the land is in much better condition that it was before farming it. However, as viruses and fungal disease are often found in garlic planting stock, Al never replants in the same field to ensure optimum garlic health. He began by purchasing high quality planting stock eradicates diseased plants as they are found, but admitted that even the best stock sometimes carries disease, infection, or fungus. He uses his own seed as much as possible, now.

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

Last season was so rainy excessive soil moisture in the fall will also promote fungal diseases. It was clear that each of these little plants is one of his babies.

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

He orders a few truckloads of nutrient rich muscle shells that he crushes and mixes into some rich organic manure and iron laden PEI soil.

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

That is one hefty truckload of muscle shells, no? He would have normally had them crushed and mixed at the end of last season to be ready for this year, but it was so wet, they delivered the shells so late, there was no time.

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

A compilation of his soil mix, above.

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

And ready for the fields.

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

Much grows in this field. Garlic for eating. Garlic for seed. Garlic cooked into black silken melting morsels of magic. Innovation and ideas. The future stretches out on this land, fingering the horizon. And friendship. Friendship grows here. “Well, don’t expect much, Valerie. I’m really not much.” Ah, my dear Al Picketts, but you are. You are much. You are so much and too much and just the right muchy-much. You were one of the three highlights of our trip to the Atlantic Provinces this year.

17  Eureka Black Garlic

After words: Al, you are truly a Canadian Food hero. I know you don’t care for your business to grow, but I will never be without a pound of your garlic in my fridge as long as I am able to cook.

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

I am so honoured to have had the time with you that we had and so proud that a fellow Canadian has produced such an incredible product and took the time you did to share your story with us.

19  Eureka Black Garlic

Al’s sign faces the road, not the direction you are driving in, so you might miss it first try. Coming from Charlottetown, when you see this sign, his farm is in the background.

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

You can see his black garlic processing silo right behind the above sign.

Al Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEIAl Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEIAl Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEIAl Picketts Eureka Black Garlic PEI

There is nothing he hasn’t created from his garlic. And the Garlic Chips? Ooooo, baby. If you like it hot, these are for you. I am still recovering from my sliver.

And, my first recipe, once again, with Eureka Black Garlic can be found here.

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Filed Under: Atlantic Provinces, Canadian Food Heroes, Prince Edward Island, The Canadian Food Experience Project Challenges Tagged With: Al Picketts, Eureka Garlic, Garlic, Kensington

About Valerie Lugonja

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Educator, Writer, Gardener and Traveler who believes in buying and eating locally, and most importantly cooking at home! As a brand new Gramsy, so be prepared to hear a lot about this new role in her life!
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Comments

  1. Paul says

    January 23, 2015 at 8:01 pm

    Great article! Sounds like a great guy, it’s always a pleasure to meet someone like that. Gonna order some black garlic now!

    Reply
    • Valerie Lugonja says

      January 24, 2015 at 8:11 am

      Let us all know how you use it and how much you love it, Paul!
      🙂
      V

      Reply
  2. linda collin says

    April 19, 2015 at 8:37 am

    So excited to be able to get this wonderful garlic on P.E.I. It is the best garlic i have even eaten . The flavor is so good.

    Reply
    • Valerie Lugonja says

      April 20, 2015 at 7:59 pm

      It is difficult to put into words, no, Linda? And anyone that meets Al, falls head over heels for him. His garlic is surreal – and so is he!
      🙂
      Valerie

      Reply
  3. Laura says

    May 12, 2015 at 4:23 pm

    For all you Albertans, Al was my neighbor in PEI. I just brought in his black garlic and it’s so sweet and spreads like butter. Delicious!!! I’m selling his garlic in Calgary (Symons Valley Ranch Farmer’s Market and Market on Macleod) and will soon be carrying in Bragg Creek and Banff! http://www.spicealchemist.com

    Reply
    • Valerie Lugonja says

      May 13, 2015 at 8:05 am

      That is excellent news for Albertan’s Laura – though Al ships anywhere – but to taste his product locally is brilliant. He is – as you know – a true Canadian Food Hero and I just cannot say enough good about this man, his brilliant mind, his generous spirit and his great big heart!
      🙂
      Valerie

      Reply
  4. Dana says

    October 3, 2015 at 12:30 am

    I have never met him, but have bought his garlic seed, and this year did get the Black gold 🙂 and yes he is a very wonderful person, his emails are just so honest and funny and you know he would never hurt a sole. He is a true person. The world is so desperately lacking in the spirit of this person. They are out there, but he is the needle in a haystack. I love the way he ships the seed garlic. You know he packed it with love and care and not just tossed in a brown bag. I guess because I love my garlic too, even though I grow 300, I give it tender loving care and can so tell he does to all of his!. It is unimaginable to me that a person who grows thousands and thousands of garlics shows care and love to them all the way I can to 300! I will one day make the Journey to visit that garlic farm and that special Al Picketts. He is the Garlic King 🙂
    Dana Mara

    Reply
    • Valerie Lugonja says

      October 5, 2015 at 4:34 pm

      Wonderful to hear from you Dana. When you meet him, he will be forever etched within your memory. He is just one of those very special people.
      🙂
      V

      Reply
  5. Brian Thompson says

    January 15, 2016 at 7:19 pm

    Hi Al,
    What varieties of seed garlic do you plan on selling in 2016?
    I live in Owen Sound, Ontario (nearby in the country) and am experimenting in growing different garlic varieties in my garden. Do you ship seed garlic to my area at all?
    Thanks for your help!!
    Brian Thompson

    Reply
  6. Jenn Fox says

    March 2, 2016 at 10:46 am

    This is a wonderful article about a very smart man who has faced the challenges of farming with a passionate, responsible and yet fearless mindset. He is always tinkering and improving his methods; he loves to share his knowledge with everyone! I am so proud that Al is my father, and yes, his garlic is the best anywhere! I happily sell it in Whitehorse, Yukon so if anyone in Yukon would like to try some, contact Jennifer at jennexus@gmail.com. 🙂

    Reply
    • Valerie Lugonja says

      March 2, 2016 at 11:40 am

      Wonderful to meet you Jennifer!
      The folks in Whitehorse are indeed fortunate, but Al will mail anywhere, so no one need be deprived!
      Thanks so much for adding this opportunity and for your lovely comments – meeting your father was certainly a highlight for us!
      Hugs
      Valerie

      Reply
  7. Jan Schafer says

    June 23, 2016 at 3:06 pm

    Just curious, is black garlic a process or a variety of garlic? Do you sell several varieties of garlic or just the Black and processed products. I am looking to buy some seed garlic to plant in my garden. Have been growing many varieties for about seven years and re-propagating from the clove heads. But wondering if I need some fresh stock as mine are getting smaller over the years. I live in Ontario, do you ship?
    Thanks for the help in advance.

    Reply
    • Valerie Lugonja says

      June 23, 2016 at 3:25 pm

      HI Jan
      I suggest you read the post – Al’s information is there as are the answers to your questions.
      🙂
      Happy plantings!
      Valerie

      Reply
  8. Michael Clark says

    January 8, 2017 at 10:16 pm

    I am a garlic farmer on the opposite coasts on galiano island I am now blackening my certified organic garlic and will be interested to see and taste the results. I am just starting down the road that Al has been on for some time now. I have created a blacker also completely different from Als I will let you know how it goes

    Reply
    • Valerie Lugonja says

      January 9, 2017 at 9:36 am

      Great to meet you, Michael!
      Isn’t Al’s story incredible! Have you met him? That is even better than tasting his black garlic – and that black garlic is the best I have ever tasted. Thrilled to hear you are working to perfect your own so close to home. If you haven’t met Al, call him. He would love to hear your story. Share his tips about how he makes his, likely not. But is also a wealth of information on varieties and growing them. He can talk your ear off and keep you totally mesmerized all day about that topic! Keep us informed and let us know when you have it perfected!
      Cheers,
      Valerie

      Reply

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