I always look forward to your annual report. Definitely sounds like the type of thing I'd go to if I lived closer. Have fun!

This sounds like such a fun event! I'd love to go one of these years. Yes, it would make a fantastic CF gathering!! Looking forward to the recipes... and pictures maybe?

You know that I don't even own a camera, don't you? ;-) But there will be pictures on some other websites, so I'll post a link when I find it. It's well covered by the local TV stations, too.

I'm so envious...

I have a cookbook from the garlic festival (it's an old one), and a toothpick holder in my car that reminds me of Gilroy every time it's used. I miss driving through Gilroy and smelling the garlic! Have fun; I'll be there with you in spirit. Maybe I'll make garlic bread for dinner tonight as part of the fun. I've had garlic pull-apart bread on my ''to-do'' list of recipes to try. This might be just the occasion to do it.

Oh man - it sounds like a blast! Can't wait to hear all about it and HAVE FUN!

Alexa

We didn't stay the whole day, too hot and getting too crowded, but the food was amazing. We only get items from the Gourmet Alley booths, They have a cream-based pesto sauce with penne pasta, and the sauce is lovely. Nicer than any oil-based pesto sauce I've ever had. I don't have a recipe, but I'll look for it; the official festival recipe is reputed to be in 10-gallon servings.

What we learn every year: We are too timid! Life needs more garlic, and spice, and not in half-hearted timid measures, either. Let that be our lesson for the day!

Wis you all were there, it was great fun!

I wish we had festivals like that around here!

I'd love to see that cream based pesto recipe. That is really intriguing.

Glad you had a good time!

Linda

What a great lesson, sushipup. I tend to jump in with both feet, until I'm in over my head, so in keeping with my personality I sometimes use altogether too much garlic. (grin)

I'd love that festival, though. One of these days I'll have to go to California in July for that. Turn up the air conditioner for me!

Annie

Now that is a festival I would love to attend. Agree totally with ".......life needs more garlic...............".

Ann

....I sense a future CF get-together opportunity.....

Thanks Helene for sharing!

The Cook-Off recipe winner is a cold watermelon crab soup. The recipe will be in the paper later this week or next, and I'll post a link to the recipe.

I have never attended the garlic festival in spite of the proximity. I'm less than 3 hours away. I'll put it on my calender for next year.

Eileen

I have to be honest - there is NOTHING appealing (to me) about the idea of cold watermelon soup......... Hopefully there will be some other recipes to come out of the festival that are more interesting.

A

Apparently the soup was great and the judges loved it. You never know what's going to be good, sometimes!

Cold watermelon crab soup actually sounds awesome to me! What I'm not "tasting" though is the abundance of garlic in there. Looking forward to seeing the recipe. Glad you had fun!

According to Google Maps, I am 300 miles (5+ hours) away - too far for a day trip, but I wouldn't mind spending a week-end in Santa Cruz next year in July. I think I could eat a fair amount of garlic at a festival - I remember seeing videos of shrimp that looked especially good a few years ago on Huell Howser's show when he visited Gilroy. Isn't Gilroy also the artichoke capital? Or is that the next town over?

Maybe the L.A. group could charter a bus, sort of like the Green Tortoise.

Lars

Next year, it will be a week later, the last weekend in July. This year, all the Monterey hotels were filled with fans for the motorcycle races, the annual Antique Faire in Moss Landing, and heaven only knows what else. There probably wasn't a hotel room to be had south of San Jose.

Lars, Castroville is the Artichoke Capital, and that's only about 5 miles from me. The Artichoke Festival is mid-May. The Strawberry Festival is in Watsonville this weekend. We used to have a Squid Festival in Monterey, but that hasn't been held in a few years. It was fun. ;-)

Another one who looks forward to your report each year. Thanks to you I've had the pleasure of enjoying that garlic and some of those chokes too. I seem to remember garlic ice cream a few years back. The gilroy garlic bread recipe is a fave of ours. Think it was Woodie that posted it years ago or maybe it was from this festival??

I just checked and the garlic I have is from CA and I have a jar of minced in the fridge from Christopher Ranch. Is that farm in your area? The bulk garlic in my local store is from China...no thanks on that!

David

I still have fond memories of the bag of garlic you sent me in one of my first swaps. If I recall correctly it was one pound. Not a single clove went to waste. Every bulb was perfect, big cloves with no blemishes. Best bunch of garlic I ever had, hands down.
James

Count me in for a CF get-together for the Gilroy Garlic Festival next year. What an itinerary we could put together for that!

I still remember the drives from SF to Salinas and you always knew when you were close to Gilroy.

Ok, we have one guest room with 2 single beds and another with a queen-sized sofa bed, plus a sofa in the living room, and room for sleeping bags. You guys can work out the arrangements, but the doors are open.

The recipes weren't in yesterday's paper, so probably next week. I'll post a new thread in the main forum when the time comes.

David, Christopher Ranch is the Official supplier to the festival. And minced is preferred over crushed, which won't keep its garlicky goodness in heat, but would be okay in dishes unheated or lightly so.

And Jim, that was just our normal garlic here, but it was from a current harvest, as I recall. It's harder to get primo garlic in the middle of the winter.

Most of the US garlic now is actually grown in the Central Valley, because of soil problems in Gilroy, but the processors are still there. But even Christopher Ranch sells Chinese-grown garlic under its label, I'm afraid. You can still smell the garlic as you drive through on 101, but it's not as strong as it used to be. ;-(

One of the fun things at the Festival is a garlic-braiding area where you can get lessons and try your hand at braiding your own. There was always a crowd when we walked by.

Oh, how I thought of all you, my friends, while we were there, and I knew you'd all enjoy it.

So! It's a date!

While I like garlic, I am only a fan if it is shared! ;)