What a day!

Jamie Kennedy Fries

The day started ominously, with such a downpour of rain that the tin roof sounded like it was being beaten by a thousand drummers. But people were lining up at 9 am despite the rain and before long the festival was in full swing, with the smell of garlickly good food being grilled, sauteed, fried, stewed, rolled and boiled.

The choice of sweet and savoury garlic inspired foods was unparalled, including Garlic Honey Ribs, Garlic Lobster Bisque, To Cure What Ails Garlic Soup (with 4,000 cloves), Roasted Corn with Garlic and Basil Butter, Ontario Perch with Garlic Scape Tartar Sauce, Lamb Shank Haleem with Garlic and Hot Sauce, Sweet Potatoe Gnocchi with Garlic Lemon Aioli, and that's just one row of chef tables. 

Just A Cup Coffee

There were more than 20 farmers on hand featuring dozens of varieties of Ontario hardneck garlic, and the cooking demos by Chefs Anne Sorrenti, Brad Long and Kobayashi lived up the their billing.

The talks, including Food Labels 101, Growing Garlic in the City, Living a No Impact Life: The Film vs. Real Life, and Garlic is as Good and Gold: Currency Flu Fighter, Taste Maker, attracted huge crowds.


Sweet items included Bourbon Black Garlic Lollipops, Black Garlic Macarons, two types of buttertart: One with Black Garlic, and one with Roasted Garlic, plus Roast Garlic Almond Brittle, Garlic and Dark Chocolate Truffle, and more.

Black Garlic Buttertarts (Smoked & Cracked)

Happy festival visitors!

Roast Garlic Almond Brittle

Reicza of Reicza's Rocamboles

The Official Garlic Breath Contest

Thanks from the bottom of my heart to all the farmers, chefs and specialty vendors who help to make this a very special day. And my utmost and heartfelt thanks to the volunteers and staff who helped to make it all seem effortless.

My favorite overheard comment the whole day: "This is the best smelling festival I've ever been to."

Garlic Harvest is Done!

All finished today, but not before we had a spagetti lunch with ten bulbs of fresh harvested garlic chopped on-the-spot, sauteed and added to the sauce. When the garlic is so fresh it's quite mild, and thanks to it's high water content at harvest, it cooks like onions.

And a side trip to Acadian Shamrock Farm

Garlic field day at Arranhill

Weeding with a wheel hoe

I managed to weed the garlic about 4x faster, and with less back ache, using a wheel hoe I borrowed from Johann. I still have to come back to hand weed between the garlic plants, but with the hoe I made quick work of the area between the rows of garlic.

Taking some shots of the Green Monster Smoothie, for the Garlic Recipes Brochure.

Great night at Brewers Plate

We had Anne Sorrenti from Morgans on the Danforth, Rebekka Hutton from Alchemy Pickle, and Shinji Yamagochi from Gushi Toronto.

Protector of the garlic

Garlic doing well

Aberfoyle Market Association mtg tonight

Big turnout of current and new vendors at the Aberfoyle Farmers' Market Association! It may not seem like a big deal, but this is close to the population of Aberfoyle. On a serious note, one reason our market has relatively few grievances between vendors is because of vendor meetings like this one, where participants get the idea that they're part of a bigger thing. That's the market manager, Matthew Bulmer, on the far right.

Cayenne to the Resue

No, Cayenne is not a character in a comic book western. At the suggestion of garlic farmer Al Cowan, I put a light sprinkling of cayenne, the spice, on the soil where I planted garlic. We live in the city, and the garlic I planted last week in small pots got dug up by squirrels. So I've re-plannted it, this time with a dash of cayenne in the hope that the odour will keep away urban pests.

The garlic I've got growing at Whole Circle Farm doesn't have this problem.

The Garlic is Emerging

Simon deBoer just sent this pic of his garlic.  Must check on my garlic in the next week.

Ted Maczka RIP

With Ted at Paul Pospisil's June, 2013 Garlic Field Day in Maberly Ontario

Am very sad to hear that Ted Maczka the "Fish Lake Garlic Man" passed away. He was a true garlic pioneer. He was preaching the virtues of garlic long before it became fashionable. I was honoured to have him speak at the 2013 garlic festival. The last time we spoke was at the festival. He was feeling chilly so I loaned him my sweater. I could see that people wanted to listen to him, not just because he was talking about garlic but because they could sense his passion. Ted was a gracious and unassuming man. His grandaughter said about him: "It wasn't logical, but his passion for his craft was mesmerizing and what made him so unique."

 We'll miss you Ted.