Eat, drink and stink - California's Garlic Festival - includes recipes, related articles, a glossary and a list of resources

Vegetarian Times, May, 1997 by Karen Cope Straus

Modern Science seems to confirm what folk healers have known all along -- garlic not only makes food taste good, it's good for you. According to current research, consuming as little as 5 to 10 grams (g.) a day, the equivalent of one large clove, offers health benefits ranging from repairing certain types of cell damage caused by pollutants and chemical toxins to lowering cholesterol and reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Ancient Chinese texts discuss regression of cancerous lumps with very high doses of garlic, 30 to 40 g. a day.

The ancient Chinese weren't the only ones to appreciate garlic's health benefits. Garlic was found in King Tut's tomb among the treasures he would need in the afterlife, and the ancient Greeks always featured plenty of garlic on the Olympic training table. Numerous folk remedies call for garlic as a respiratory and digestive aid, a cure for warts and the flu and for keeping fleas and ticks off pets. During World War II, the British used garlic as a bactericide, and in Japan, soaps and lotions containing deodorized garlic powder are used to stimulate blood circulation in the skin.

Scientists today believe that aromatic compounds found in garlic might be the key to the bulb's benefits. Sniff a bulb of garlic and it's odorless. However, crush a clove of raw garlic and an amino acid called alliin comes in contact with the enzyme alliinase. The reaction of these compounds procedures allicin the key to garlic's characteristic odor. Once allicin forms, it is transformed into several additional sulphur compounds that are under scrutiny by researchers for their healing properties.

So, in addition to an apple a day to keep the doctor away, you might want to add a clove of garlic to your daily routine. And where better to get your daily garlic fix than a small farming community in northern California named Gilroy. A few years ago this small dot on die map southeast of San Francisco had an inferiority complex about itself and its primary crop, garlic. When others sniffed garlic and grimaced, a visionary named Rudy Melone smelled success. "There was a general air of embarrassment about garlic, an absence of pride. But to me, garlic was everything to be proud about," he says.

Melone set out to rescue Gilroy's self-esteem with a festival celebrating the "stinking rose." Melone had heard of a small French town, Arleux, that annually hosted a garlic festival. Arleux, with a population of 3,000, claimed to be the garlic capital of the world, and its festival attracted 80,000 annually. Melone did a little research and found that Gilroy produced more garlic than Arleux. Melone gathered Gilroy's growers at a luncheon with local business leaders to show them the value of the crop. The luncheon caught the eye of an editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, and the bulb was robing.

At the first garlic festival 19 years ago, a small group of volunteers expected 3,000 visitors but instead 23,000 showed up. Volunteers frantically cooked pasta at their homes to keep up with demand from hungry festivalgoers; beer distributors received calls from panicked organizers telling them to forget sending more kegs, send more beer trucks. Tickets were sold, collected, recycled and sold again to the throngs.

From 23,000 garlic-loving guests the first year, the festival now attracts 100,000 annually. "Garlic is still the star," Melone says. "But the star wouldn't shine without the volunteers." More than 4,000 dedicated people work exhausting hours to put on the best summer party on die West Coast. In addition to spreading the good news about garlic, the festival has raised $4 million for charities and community organizations since its founding. Gilroy now holds it head high as the Garlic Capital of the World, and Melone is known as the father of the festival.

One of the festival's most-visited exhibit areas is Gourmet Alley, where self-described "pyro cooks" work four-hour shifts on blistering summer days wielding 100-pound metal skillets over cooking fires whose flames sometimes shoot five feet into the air. In 1996, roasted garlic was introduced at Gourmet Alley. The soft, sweet garlic bulbs, baked in a little olive oil then served atop country bread with feta cheese sauce and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, were an instant hit. People ordering roasted garlic received a sticker proclaiming, "I ate the whole thing!"

In addition to eating themselves silly on garlic-infused foods such as stir-fries, spring rolls, stuffed mushrooms, corn on the cob with garlic salt, artichokes with garlic ranch dressing, garlic chocolate ice cream and garlic and chocolate peanut butter cups, festivalgoers enjoy hands-on workshops on garlic topping, where the tops and roots of bulbs are removed with special shears, and garlic braiding, where untrimmed bulbs and stalks are woven into long braids. Then there's the Great Garlic Cook-off, where hundreds of amateur and professional cooks submit recipes that are narrowed down to eight finalists who are flown to Gilroy to prepare their recipes at the festival. A panel of celebrity judges picks the winner, who is crowned with a garlic wreath and goes home $1,000 richer. This year's top three recipes and other crowd-pleasing favorites follow.