Above: Garlic grown by Grand Gorge Garlic and Maple. Photo by Julia Reischel.
Tens of thousands of people come to the annual Hudson Valley Garlic Festival in Saugerties every year to celebrate everyone's favorite clove. For two days this weekend, about fifty farmers will be selling a dizzying array of garlic varieties--softneck, hardneck, pink, purple, you name it--under the festival's floating garlic-shaped balloon.
Over the years--the festival began in 1989--the event has evolved into a bacchanalia of garlic-related arts, music, theater and food. Over 100 food vendors will be serving tons fo garlic-flavored food, including garlic-flavored ice cream, according to the Daily Freeman. There will be puppet theater, face-painting, rock-climbing, a bunch of live bands and Morris dancers wearing bells and perfoming tradiitional harvest dances.
Hudson Valley Garlic Festival. Saturday, Sept. 26 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 27 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cantine Field, Saugerties. hvgf.org.
