The 2006 Gilroy Garlic Festival

[Octaveman]

So the Gilroy Garlic Festival was last weekend and in case you couldn’t go or have never been, here are a few words and a few pics showcasing some things from the festival.

GENERAL

“The Fest” has been around since 1979 and is used solely as a non-profit event. The event occurs on the last complete weekend in July. If August 1st falls on a Sunday, the festival will be held the weekend prior and runs Friday through Sunday. It is held at Christmas Hill Park in Gilroy that is very big and surrounded by trees. The park grounds are separated in two by Gourmet Alley with the food and merchandise vendors on both sides. There is a stage where the cooking demonstrations are held and where the garlic cook-offs happen. They had something new this year. There was a small stage set up that explained how to make the various dishes from Gourmet Alley. I didn’t notice it until late in the afternoon so I missed what I wanted to see but there’s always next year.

View of Gourmet Alley and surrounding

Cook-Off Stage

Parking is in huge lots surrounding the park and there are air-conditioned coaches to take you to the front gates. Not like the old days where you had to hoof it. Some may have heard rumors or stories about how bad the parking situation was with all the dust and long walks but the organizers have taken great strides the last 10+ years to make it more comfortable and easy for all young and old. There are water trucks circling the parking lots at all times watering them down to control the dust. The park itself is very lush with greenery and grass that makes it very enjoyable to walk around on. It can get hot in Gilroy. This year was not as hot as previous years but if or when you go, dress accordingly.

I personally have been going since 1981 or 1982 (can’t remember) and only missed a handful of festivals since moving down to San Diego in 1985. This year we brought our kids (6 mo. old boy and 2.5 yr. old girl) to the festival because the babysitter (Grandma) fell ill and was not able to watch them. No problem though because the boy just stayed in his car seat and the girl had a blast running around and eating almost as much garlic-laden food as my wife and I. They have a kids play area that my wife took my daughter to blow off some energy while I strolled around taking some pictures.

More to come....

[Octaveman]

THE FOOD

The object of the festival is to eat as much food as you can without going broke. There is a wide range of foods to eat but it can get a bit costly. I usually get way too stuffed from my usual dishes I never get a chance to try the other yummy vendors all over the place but one of these times, we’ll hit them first and then go for the usual suspects after. The usuals I’m referring to are the peppersteak sandwiches, the sautéed calamari, shrimp scampi, bag of garlic bread, BBQ’d pork on a stick, garlic ice cream, chocolate covered apricots, BBQ’d oysters on the half shell, deep fried artichoke hearts and deep fried mushrooms, etc. As you can see, that doesn’t leave much room in my belly for anything but a couple tablets of Tagamet. Yes, I did say garlic ice cream and it’s delicious. One cone was not enough for my daughter…she had to have two. It’s basically soft serve vanilla ice cream flavored with garlic. The garlic flavor is not overpowering and mild but it does have a slight bite of garlic to it. I would serve it to guests at my house…it’s that good.

My daughter and her 2nd ice cream cone

The Peppersteak sandwich

The sauteed calamari

The shrimp scampi

Gourmet Alley is sponsored by Con-Agra or by the City of Gilroy (not 100% sure) and is the focal point of the festival. On one end you have the huge bbq pits cooking the roasts for the peppersteak sandwiches and on the other end, they are cooking up the scampi and calamari. The middle is where they make the other items. Gourmet Alley serves up Peppersteak sandwiches, sautéed calamari, shrimp scampi, Penne con Pesto, stuffed mushrooms, stir-fried garlic chicken, garlic sausage sandwiches and two different combo plates with the above.

Mmmmmm...beef

There's Rosemary branches tied to the stick and they dip it into a bucket of 1/3 lemon juice to 2/3 white wine, oregano, S&P and loads of mince garlic.

Fire in the Hole!!!! The calamari being cooked

The vendors surrounding the grounds include with some duplications and/or variations deep fried (DF) calamari, DF clams, DF shrooms, DF artichoke hearts, Thai beef/chicken/pork sticks, Spanish garlic shrimp, garlic rosemary chicken sandwich, BBQ pork rib’s and pulled pork sandwiches, garlic fries, escargot, garlic cheese pizza, blackened catfish, corn on the cob with garlic butter, garlic veggie wraps, garlic kettle corn, fruit smoothies, Cajun foods (alligator, crawfish, etc.), bbq’d turkey legs, chocolate dipped fruits……..just to name a few.

Yummy apricots

A few vendors like this one serve samples of their mustards, relishes, salsas, etc.

More to come.......

[Octaveman]

THE ARTS & CRAFTS

Maybe I don’t get out much to the craft fairs but it seems like there were more vendors/artists that had really cool stuff this year than in years past. There were quite a bit of them on both sides of the park showcasing jewelry, pottery, photographs, paintings, clothing, cutting boards, wood carvings, metal carvings, weather vanes, glass stuff, etc. Much more than I can remember. All really nice stuff but priced beyond what most people would pay. That’s not to say it’s not worth it. I couldn’t justify spending $40 for a really cool water bowl for my cats for example. There was this one vendor that had some really cool things and if I had a spare $575, I would’ve bought that wall hanging for my dining room.

THE ENTERTAINMENT

There are three stages that have music going from the time they open until the time they close. This is a great place to sit/hang out and let your food settle a bit. Music ranges from cover bands to blues to folk type stuff to country to jazz to rockabilly to funk…you name it. They also have roaming musicians that play around the park.

THE BEVERAGES

Soda and water places are all over the park. There are three beer tents that serve Budweiser related products and a wine tent that has about 10 or so local wineries to sample from. There is a commemorative beer cup made of tin if you’d like a souvenir as well as commemorative wineglasses that are usually limited editions with the GF logo and year printed on them. This year’s glass looked more like a champagne flute than a wineglass so I didn’t get one.

The wine tent. Sorry I didn't take a lot of pics of this. This is just one side of it.

One of the three beer tents

GARLIC WORLD and THE GARLIC SHOPPE

These two places are great to check out before or after the festival. I always get a couple of boxes of garlic from Garlic World and we picked up a few other things for friends/co-workers and myself if I didn’t get anything at the festival. This was my first visit to The Garlic Shoppe and it had some nice things but were overpriced IMHO. I believe they are associated with Rappazini winery. I think Garlic World is much better though. Also spanning the side roads in Gilroy are all the fruit shacks selling various things. I bought two pounds of Bing cherries that were delicious. Both these places are located on Interstate 101 south of 152 on the east side of the freeway and are about 1 mile apart.

The Garlic festival is a great time and I highly recommend going. Friday would be the best day to go since the weekends can get almost too packed with festivalgoers. It’s also best to get there when they open at 10:00 a.m. because for some reason, the crowds don’t get going until late morning early afternoon. The traffic getting to the fest can be backed up the later you go. On our way home to San Diego on Sunday, traffic was backed up to the highway. That’s a long trek to the park from there moving at a snails pace.

Cheers,

Bob

[alanamoana]

i went for the first time on saturday! we had a great time and ate tons of garlic laden fried food. it was hot, but the tents offered great shade and there was a nice breeze. some of the music was pretty good. there were some guys playing that had a country/zaideco(sp?) sound that was fun.

we weren't too interested in watching demos and stuff, we just wanted to see what it was all about.

from what i overheard most garlic is grown elsewhere in california nowadays. there's just the big processing plant for garlic in gilroy itself. also, tons of garlic is being imported from china now as well. too bad!

but octaveman, you're right, they have done a great job with the parking and bussing, etc. we got to gilroy at about 9:50am and we just had to follow the line of cars along the road to get to the festival. we were very happy to get there just as it opened as we avoided a lot of lines and crowds initially.

it was a fun and beautiful california day.

[joeyz34]

oh man, you're making me homesick... i haven't gone to one of the garlic festivals since 2000... but i would go yearly before that

i do still try and pick up some habanero pickled garlic everytime i pass through though

[Carolyn Tillie]

Fabulous report with great pictures (that multi-layered drinks looks great!). I gotta admit - I went a dozen years and was really put off by the crowds. Your pics made it seem not too overwhelming and something I might reconsider in the future!

[samgiovese]

Not to be a wet blanket, but this might explain why things were better than previous years.

[Carolyn Tillie]

Not to be a wet blanket, but this might explain why things were better than previous years.

←

"Better" is relative! I stopped going because it was way too crowded...

[Pan]

I really enjoyed the photos and story!

I've been once, in 1999, I think. I have to disagree about the garlic ice cream -- I'd only go as far as saying that it's surprisingly acceptable to have once -- but some of the food, like the calamari, was tasty. Did they have the garlic fortified wine this time? My brother and I got free samples, and man, did it suck! Anyway, though it was really hot the year I went and further from San Francisco than my brother had realized (it took a long time to get there), it was a lot of fun. I wouldn't rush back but would go if I were a lot closer than San Francisco at the time the fair was happening.

[PamelaF]

Great photos, OctaveMan! You really captured the spirit of the festival.

I went last in 2003. Lots of great food! But what really impressed me is how the entire community really gets involved in putting the festival together. The parking and all the logistics are better organized than Disneyland. Most of the booths are staffed by volunteers and the proceeds go to local schools, organizations and charities.

It's quite a party too. Even in the 90+ heat, when a popular local oldies band was playing in the afternoon, the dance area in front of the stage was packed with people of all ages dancing and having a great time.

Sorry I missed it this year.

[Octaveman]

Yes, this is a non-profit event that disperses the proceeds to the organizations based on volunteer time contributed to all events surrounding and including the festival...the golf tournament, the 5k run, etc.

Glad people are enjoying the pics. There was a lot I didn't take pictures of mostly because I've been going for so long that I just picked and chose the most obvious things to shoot. I love going probably for the same reason I love baseball. I can go and relax, listen to music, eat my fill and have a nice day at my own pace. After all these years of going, I still haven't learned how to braid garlic. I guess I'm a creature of habit.

Numbers, shmumbers...they don't mean anything to me. My wife and I go on Friday and except for this past visit we go again sunday morning to eat before heading back home. So we alone account for 4 in attendance. I know there are many people that go for lunch and leave. People come and go all day long. Maybe it's because I go on the slow/work day that makes me not care about the counts. It just doesn't matter as there are ways to avoid the crowds. Besides, it's a festival for pete's sake, not a winter's day at the beach. You're going to have crowds. Fridays and mornings, the crowds are less that other times.

It can definately be hot. I've seen it so hot that we had to leave around 1:00 because it was so unbearable. Dispite the hot weather up and down the state, Friday was rather pleasant. It was warm but the breeze was what helped things out.

[Shelby]

I immediately thought of this topic after hearing the news this morning.  I hope and pray none of our food friends were hurt.