Stratford Garlic Festival

Last year in the fall when I was looking for some new garlic varieties I found out about the Stratford garlic festival.  I had already bought some varieties from Ego’s and didn’t want to go and possibly get more until I had grown some and decided if I liked it as a crop or not.

 

Well after this year’s successful garlic crop and the fact that I have discovered that I love growing it, I decided that a trip to the Stratford garlic festival was necessary even though it’s like a 2.5 hour drive.  I went down after hockey and the weather was exactly what they called for.  It poured rain the whole way down and then once I was there it started to clear up.  There was a 10 minutes period where I temporarily left the festival to sit in the car because of the rain.

I tried a number of different samples of garlic, garlic products, jams and even some honey.  The lack of actually lunch food kind of surprised me but there were a few places. I ended up bringing home some honey, and a lavender ginger jam.

Now for the most important part the garlic!  The first thing I did when I got there was a walk around to see who had what various kinds of garlic.  While I did check out the prices, any garlic that I was going to be able to purchase there would be much cheaper than something I would have to order from BC, not to mention I could hand pick exactly what I want and it should already be adjusted to our climate.

For purchases from August’s Harvest I bought German Red (Rocambole).  For selection they grow about 7 varieties in large quantities and the varieties they grow are all larger varieties.  The bulbs I purchased were large and price was $9/lb. 

At Hampstead Garlic I bought 4 different varieties. Red grain (purple stripe), Red Rezan (glazed), Brown Tempest (marbled) and Purple Glazer (glazed). They were all nice looking bulbs and he had about 25 different kinds available.  I paid $8/lb which was about the average to lower end at the festival.

The last place I bought garlic from was Golden Acres Farm.  I saved them for last because they had by far the largest selection there.  They grow over 127 different kinds and had 41 at the festival.  Now their garlic is all certified organic and was selling at $14/lb.  It was there that I bought 10 different kinds of garlic.  I bought Marbled Purple Stripes: Red Russian,Irkutsk,Gaia's Joy and Siberian; Rocambole's: Carpathian, Killarney Red and Pitarelli; Purple Stripes: Chesnok Red and Persian Star; as well as a Porcelain: Georgian Crystal.

 

I thought it was a good festival and am very pleased with everything I was able to get.  I ended up spending $75 just on garlic for next year’s crop but will be able to replant cloves year after year so was ok with the cost.  I am also going to have to change up the garden plans a little for next year.