Back in Business
I recall a summer family trip to California when I was a child of around 10. We had a family event around LA, and made a partial road trip out of it. I’m hazy on these details and might be wrong but it involved a trip from the north to the south, from San Francisco to LA (was it the other way around?) after flying into San Francisco. We spent 3 days at Disney – my second time there and the last, and drove through another place that some might consider the happiest place on earth: Gilroy, the garlic capital of the world. Gilroy is the southernmost city in Santa Clara County, California. Wikipedia says,
Gilroy is well-known for its garlic crop and for the annual Gilroy Garlic Festival, featuring various garlicky foods, including garlic ice cream. Gilroy also produces mushrooms in considerable quantity. Gilroy’s nickname is “Garlic Capital of the World,” although Gilroy does not lead the world in garlic production. While garlic is grown in Gilroy, its nickname comes from the fact that Gilroy Foods processes more garlic than any other factory in the world; most pickled, minced, and powdered garlic come from Gilroy.
Garlic ice cream? I’ve discussed garlic ice cream before but never tried it.
(When doing a Google image search I came across the blog Vegan Homemade and wanted to give her a shout out because I liked the post about the Gilroy Garlic Festival.)
I might be confusing Gilroy with our overnight stay in Pismo Beach that same vacation (the next time I’d hear about Pismo Beach would be while watching the movie Clueless), but I remember a “death by chocolate” cake (I think it’s a memory of a memory), and Caesar salad made table-side. Of course, I could ask one of my parents for clarification on these memories but I’d rather stick with a raw, unchecked version for this blog post. I’m just as convinced that my cake and salad memory occurred in one place as I’m convinced it happened in the other.
Garlic, or Allium sativum, has been cultivated for thousands of years. Garlic is native to central Asia and has long been a staple in the Mediterranean region, as well as a frequent seasoning in Asia, Africa, and Europe. It was known to Ancient Egyptians, and has been used throughout its history for both culinary and medicinal purposes.
A few years ago I became more aware of Ontario’s garlic crop when I heard about The Cutting Veg’s Global Garlic Project. The project launched with 100 bulbs in 2005 (10 bulbs each of 10 different varieties). From those 100 bulbs they harvested 600 bulbs in 2006. You can read the specifics here, but production has increased enormously over the years. This summer they harvested 27,000 bulbs. From the numbers given on their website, I calculated an increase of 4400% in production from 2006 to 2011! Over the years they’ve added to the number of varieties that they grow as well. They started with 10 bulbs each of 10 different varieties. They now have 17 varieties from all over the world. From their blog:
What’s the difference between all the varieties? Some are hot and spicy, some are mild, some are sweet. Some varieties have many cloves per bulb… while others… can have 2 or 3 huge cloves. Colours and shape vary as well.
Hurray to The Cutting Veg!
And now Toronto has its own garlic festival. Next weekend, Sunday September 25, 9am-4pm, is the first ever Toronto Garlic Festival at Evergreen Brickworks (pavilion). What you’ll find there:
$5 Adult admission (free for kids under 12) and free festival shuttle bus every 15 minutes from the parkette behind Broadview subway station.
