We’ve been to a lot of festivals in our time, but never to a Garlic Festival, or more accurately an Elephant Garlic Festival. So when our friends Patty and Brian invited us, we said yes.
First up was a small town parade where the announcer proclaimed this to be the 3rd largest elephant garlic fest in the USA out of a total of 600. Brian and I missed the rest of the announcements, because we were too busy digesting and poking fun at that factoid. 600 garlic festivals? Really? And if this is the 3rd biggest, that must mean festivals #200 to #600 only have a couple people in attendance.
Anyway, the parade kicked off and we were then entertained not so much by the entries but by the kids running around collecting the thrown candy. Jasmine and her sister Destiny both collected a big haul worthy of any Halloween outing. Another cool thing was that one entry actually tossed out elephant garlic to the crowd.
Afterwards, we went the festival site, where the kids did lots of playing, and the adults browsed the crafts area and then we made the difficult decision of what to eat for lunch in the crowded aisle of vendors. We were expecting a plethora of garlic themed food offerings, but there were only a few – garlic icecream, garlic parm fries, and a combo dish of garlic chicken, green beans and mash potatoes. We guessed that people like the idea of a garlic festival more than they like the reality of bad breath from eating garlic inspired cuisine.
