Garlic Bulbs, Moghadam Rocambole

Moghadam Rocambole garlic was brought to our attention by the Iranian American farmer and seed saver Sasha Moghadam (WA) when he reached out to us to offer his garlic bulbs for our catalog. Rocambole garlic is typically known for its robust, full-bodied and sweet, earthy flavor with buttery texture. Moghadam Rocambole typically produces 8-10 large cloves per bulb. Excellent raw or cooked.

Sasha told us that this rocambole garlic was stewarded and selected year after year by his father, Jamshid Moghadam, in Colorado from 1990’s until he passed in 2019, and added:

“I grew up pretty distant from my Iranian heritage and culture. I never really felt at home in myself, and I didn’t have a strong sense of who I was, partly because I didn’t know where I had come from. I only knew half of my story. Our father was in and out of my life, and I was just getting to know him a little more in the years leading up to his death in 2019. Right before he passed, he gave me one of the most beautiful and humble gifts I have received. He sent me a box of seed: Garlic, Persian Leek, and hollyhock that he’d been growing in his Colorado garden for twenty some years. These seeds were special, and they were a point of entry into our culture and heritage for me. Today, they’re my connection not only to my father, but to those who tended the seeds before him. They held the stories untold, and through them I had a point of connection – not only to resurrect the culture that I had been disconnected from, but to connect me to a community that I had never been a part of.

When I grew Moghadam rocambole first, I started with less than a dozen bulbs and for the last eight years I have built that seed stock up to where it is now. This is the first year I have enough seed to share with other garlic growers and I’m taking a leap of faith, having a good crack at growing garlic as my full time job.

I feel like this garlic holds all of my father’s secrets-the ones he could not confide in with son, or daughter, or wife, or friend, the garlic knows. Every season, these bulbs tells me, with discernment, just enough. They remind me of who I am, where I’ve come from, and where I am going. For many days and many years I have communed with this garlic- cracked cloves, planted them, weeded them, harvested them every summer, hung them to dry. Wherever I have buried my plow, this garlic called home. These cloves have heard my screams, my cries, my laughter, my joy, and my prayers. They too know all of my secrets, and one day, so long as I keep up my end of the deal they will do for me what they did for my father: They will share with my kin, the stories that go untold.”

Our seed garlic was grown with organic practices by Sasha Moghadam in Husum, Washington. Also check out Moghadam Marbled Stripe, the other garlic variety Sasha grows year after year. 

Garlic bulbs ship end of September 2025. If you order seeds along with garlic bulbs and would like us to ship your seeds right away, please contact us.