Garlic Goddesses In Two Garlic Capitals

No Garlic for the Queen

When Queen Elizabeth visited Italy in October 2000, Italian chefs were dismayed at a ban on garlic for the royal menu. They were also warned not to offer the Queen long pastas such as spaghetti, messy tomato sauces, and blackberries and raspberries, presumably because of the tendency of the seeds to stick between the teeth.

According to a report in The Times: "Before any overseas visit Buckingham Palace warns the hosts that the Queen does not like anything too spicy or exotic; there is also an absolute ban on serving her shellfish, lest the royal progress is interrupted by gastric indisposition.

"Italian chefs expressed dismay at the prohibitions, particularly the ban on garlic, which features in well-loved dishes such as spaghetti alle vongole, pesto, and almost anything devised in Naples. At Gusto, a fashionable Rome restaurant opposite the mausoleum of the Emperor Augustus on the Tiber River, Saverio Crescente, the manager, said garlic was not used in all Italan dishes but was essential to many. It is not only delicious but also very good for the digestion, he said.

"In the Middle Ages garlic was used as a medicine because of its antiseptic and antispasmodic qualities. It was also a charm, effective against evil spirits, bad luck and vampires. It is mentioned as early as Chaucer, who in The Canterbury Tales describes a pilgrim, fresh back from Rome, who loved garleek, onyons and lekes washed down with strong wyn, reed as blood."

Anyone flying across North America may detect a familiar, pungent aroma which delights some, but repels others. It's smoke rising from the Great Garlic Battle, being fought by two U.S. rural communities nearly 3000 miles apart.

On the west coast, Gilroy, California, 30 miles south of San Jose and the Silicon Valley, has been hosting "the world's best food festival" for 23 years, nowadays attracting more than 125,000 people on the last weekend in July.
Almost 3000 miles away, on the other side of the continent, Saugerties NY, in the Hudson Valley 100 miles north of New York City, holds "the #1 Food Festival in the U.S." on the last weekend in September.

As discussed on http://hvgf.org website we found "If you're ever in the USA during September, please come to our Hudson Valley Garlic Festival," she replied. "It's now the second largest festival in the US - Gilroy is still the 'biggg boy' - but we have a greater variety of different types of garlic for sale at our event. Lots of hard-neck plus some soft necks. USA Today has just selected us as the #1 regional food fest in the United States. What a boost!"

Pat Reppert's website tells how Saugerties has become Gilroy's rival. In 1989 Pat held a Garlic Dinner Party in the gardens at Shale Hill Farm and Herb Gardens to educate people about the wonderful flavors of cold-hardy garlic (Allium sativum ophioscorodon), teach them how to grow it and also to advertise the small herb shop at Shale Hill Farm.

Within three years this small Garlic Dinner Party had grown to an event with 1600 people clamoring to buy only 200 available tickets, after the New York Times had printed a fullpage article about cold-hardy garlic and the festival at Shale Hill.

"I asked the Saugerties Kiwanis Club about sponsoring this event, which had outgrown the facilities at Shale Hill Farm and the limited energies of the emerging and aging Goddess of Garlic," says Pat. "The Kiwanis Club agreed to take on the responsibility of producing this run-away event if I would become a member and share in the planning and promotion of what would become the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival, attracting more than 40,000 people each year to the historic and picturesque village of Saugerties."

Since the Kiwanis Club is a not-for-profit service club with all volunteer help (including year round efforts of the Garlic Committee), all of the profits (approximately $90,000 each year) goes back into the community for worthwhile projects such as building an ice hockey rink for the youth of Saugerties and the Hudson Valley area, winter coats for needy youngsters, and supplementing the Food Pantry. Volunteers from churches and other not-for-profit groups who work during the festival hours are paid by giving donations to charities of their choice.

The shop at Shale Hill Farm has been transformed into a Herb and Garlic Learning Center. Pat conducts a full schedule of cooking classes and informational lectures on the health-giving aspects of garlic and other herbs, at Shale Hill Farm and many other venues around the United States.

Was 18th-century dictionary writer Dr. Samuel Johnson a garlic lover?

When a lady complained about his body odor: "Sir, you SMELL!"
Dr. Johnson corrected her grammar, "No, dear lady. YOU smell, I STINK!"

Today's Christopher Ranch was founded by a third generation Don Christopher (Ole's grandson) in 1956. Starting then with just 10 acres of garlic, the Ranch now employs more than 600 people year-around and has a seasonal harvesting crew of 1,200. Fourth generation Bill Christopher joins his father in overseeing 6,500 acres of row crops and directing a worldwide network of selling, packing and shipping an ever increasing number of products.

FRESH GARLIC RECIPES - From Gilroy, Christopher Ranch displays a wide selection of recipes at https://christopherranch.com/featured-recipes using fresh garlic.

And the Saugerties Goddess https://www.garlicgoddesses.com (Pat Rappert) offers four of her favorite recipes.

SAUGERTIES' STRANGE NAME

Saugerties is at the foot of the Catskill Mountains on the West bank of the Hudson River, 100 miles North of New York City. The name Saugerties takes its derivation from the Holland Dutch, Zager's Killetje: Zager (sawyer or sawmill), and Kill (creek or stream), with the suffix tje (modernized as ties) to indicate little. Thus the sawmill on the Zager's Killetje, or Little Kill, became Saugerties, leaving us with a direct link to our early Dutch heritage.

Lured by the great water power furnished by the falls in the Esopus, Henry Barclay built the first mill to become the cornerstone of our immensely successful paper industry. Coated papers named Catskill and Ashokan were produced in Saugerties and earned national fame. Throughout the 1800s and early 1900s our town ranked as one of the leading producers of paper in the country, with as much as eight tons of paper and books produced daily. In addition, $750,000 worth of bluestone was quarried here annually and shipped all over the world from our docks on the Hudson. This town was jumpin'!

Our early prosperous and thriving economy is still evident in the architecture of Saugerties Village, called one of the most attractive communities on the Hudson. If you enjoy urban walks, the village has an eight-block commercial section designated an Historic District by the National Register of Historic Places. It boasts old stone houses, beautiful churches, and over 80 mid to late 19th century brick buildings housing the best selection of antique shops and restaurants in the Hudson Valley.

There is a Carnegie Library, circa 1915, and a few blocks from the village is a 1/3 mile long "low tide" nature trail to the oldest lighthouse on the Hudson River...There are also boat launching areas on the Hudson River and at the public beach on the Esopus Creek. Wintertime sports include public skating and sledding in town, with several major ski resorts within a half hour drive up the mountains...