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Promotes sustainable farms, local food, a healthy environment, and family fun
Article and Photographs by Sara Duane
[This article originally appeared in the Vol. 38 - No. 46 Wright County Journal Press' September 14, 2008, edition of The Drummer. It is reprinted here with permission. It would be a violation of copyright law to reprint it without written permission from that publication.]
On August 16th of this year, thousands of people attended the Third Annual Minnesota Garlic Festival at the Wright County Fair Grounds in Howard Lake. The Garlic Festival is a family friendly and fun-filled event for garlic lovers of all ages. Hosted by the Crow River Chapter of the Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota, this fragrant and flavorful festival promotes gourmet garlic farming within the state. The Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota supports the development and enhancement of sustainable farming systems through innovation, demonstration, education, and farmer-to-farmer networking. Founded by Jerry Ford, the Crow River Chapter president, the Minnesota Garlic Festival itself was started in support of vital rural communities, sustainable farms, local food, and a healthy environment. It’s also a fun and entertaining way to spend a Saturday afternoon. As expected, there were incredible varieties of garlic everywhere the eye could see and none of it resembled the run-of-the-mill type typically found in grocery stores. The bulbs were sizeable, fitting nicely into the palm of the hand. The fleshy cloves inside were large and aromatic. The stalks of some were left uncut and then beautifully braided together, while others were trimmed neatly and kept in baskets. They had names like Music, Armenian, German Red, Russian Red, and Polish White. Not quite all of the over 100 varieties of garlic grown within the state of Minnesota were represented, but many of them were there. The garlic crops in Minnesota are planted in October, harvested in July, and impeccably cured just in time for the festival. The bulbs will keep at warm temperatures for up to a year, which is just about long enough until the next garlic festival occurs. After sampling and cooking with cloves such as these, buying garlic at the store will never quite be the same.
The Garlic Festival promotes gourmet garlic farming within the state of Minnesota. It is one of nearly 20 garlic festivals in the country.
The Minnesota Garlic Festival has much more to offer than ingredients for a fantastic Italian dinner. Comforting foods like hand-made jams, gourmet honey, and homemade ice cream were also very popular items available for sale. Farmers and small businesses had booths set up to sell other goods and services as well, like Purple Prairie Botanicals olive oil soap, hand-spun yarn from the Minnesota Prairie Spinners, landscaping design by Cattail Corners, and gardening implements from CobraHead Tools. Heartwood Farms from Sauk Center even brought alpacas to help draw attention to their alpaca fleece clothing line. What would a festival be without great fair food? Of course, because it was the Garlic Festival, the food fit well with the theme. There are few other places where one might eat a spicy garlic brat, garlic hot beef sandwich, garlic barbeque ribs, and garlic cheese beef jerky sticks. There were even garlic chocolate chip cookies and garlic ice cream from Cedar Summit Creamery for desert.
The Minnesota Garlic Festival is a flavorful, fragrant, and fun addition to the summer celebration line-up. It’s also held right here in our neck of the woods at the Wright County Fair Grounds.
The Minnesota Garlic Festival, like any good celebration, had plenty of music and activities to entertain the crowds. A line-up of excellent chefs presented cooking demonstrations, teaching spectators how to make milk roasted garlic, homemade garlic sausage, and poached garlic and cuke soup. “Ask the Expert” sessions ran throughout the day, teaching observers about growing and using herbs, vegetables, and, of course, garlic. Musical performances by Bob Fantauzzo, Marienne Kreitlow & the Shovel Girls, and the Light of the Moon Band kept toes tapping throughout the day. Not only did JAWAAHIR perform Middle Eastern dances for onlookers, but they taught a class on how to belly dance as well. Alfie and Ivan, a pair of Norwegian Fjord Horses from RuraLife Farm in Brooten, chomped at the bit to give festival-goers wagon rides. Kids could partake in activities which included seed art, kite flying, veggie bowling, cow milking, and other old-style country picnic games. On the whole, a good time was had by all. The Minnesota Garlic Festival for this year has passed, but it will be back again in 2009. It is usually held on the third weekend of August at the Wright County Fairgrounds in Howard Lake. Though so many other large festivals are held in the Twin Cities, this cornucopia of flavor and fun in the middle of farm country couldn’t have found a more perfect home.To see more pictures that were taken in the making of this article, please visit the Minnesota Garlic Festival album at Flickr.Sara Duane-Gladden is as a freelance writer living just outside of Minneapolis & St. Paul in central Minnesota. She graduated in 2003 from the University of Minnesota, Morris, with a BA in English and has been working in the writing & marketing fields for over 5 years. She also writes and maintains the True to Words language blog and Sam Can Shoot photography blog.
The Light of the Moon Band was just one of several musical acts performing at the festival. From left to right: Mike Keyes, Robin Fox (seated), Jacque Pierre, and Nick Jordan.
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