Fall is the time to plant garlic that you will harvest next summer. Come and find out how and why garlic can be your gateway to vegetable gardening – and learn the secrets behind how five garlic bulbs grown at the Koiner farm (the only urban farm in Montgomery County) won the blue ribbon at the 2024 Montgomery County Agricultural Fair.

We’ll also tour the farm and provide an update on the Charles Koiner Conservancy for Urban Farming’s expansion to a second farm nearby.

Tony Sarmiento, former president of Silver Spring Village, joined the board of the Charles Koiner Conservancy for Urban Farming in 2021 to support its missionof protecting and managing urban farms that inspire the next generation of sustainable food innovators. He retired in 2017 after a long career in community/social justice work and has lived in upper Northwest DC and Silver Spring since 1958. His garlic, grown in his small backyard in Woodside, has won the blue ribbon at both the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair and the Maryland State Fair.