California Thursday - Who doesn't like Garlic? hehe

Well, I suppose most vampires keep away from Gilroy. :)

I heard of Gilroy back in the 1990's when I first got to California after leaving the army. My husband and I were childless at the time and we went up to the Monteray area and he told me about Gilroy which was on the way up. Heck, you could smell Gilroy.

The Garlic Festival is going to be during July 23-25th this year. They have everything from Garlic Nachos to Garlic Fries and Garlic Shakes and Garlic Ice Cream. It's amazing what you can do with Garlic. hehe. I had my husband drive by Gilroy last March (2009) on the way back from Sacramento. Mind you, I didn't know better. It wasn't Garlic season. He drove all though the town and I was sad I didn't find any garlic! haha

The Mission of the Festival: The Gilroy Garlic Festival is established to provide benefits to local worthy charities and non-profit groups by promoting the community of Gilroy through a quality celebration of Garlic. (taken from the offical website)

Gilroy is about an hour south of San Fransisco on the 101 FWY. It's a very scenic drive - lots of green. The website says it's 30 miles south of San Jose. My memory might be a little hazy. Like the strawberry festival, they do charge an admission, $17.00 for adults, $8.00 for kids, but if you ask me, that's reasonable.

This year is the 31st Garlic Festival. Last year over 108,000 attended the festival. This year, top Chef Star Fabio to Host Garlic Showdown
Fabio Viviani, star of Bravo-TV’s popular “Top Chef” series, will host the July 26 Garlic Showdown, presented by Raley’s and Nob Hill Foods. The iron chef format will match four well-known Northern California professional chefs in a cooking competition offering a first prize of $5,000. The featured ingredient will be garlic and the chefs will be presented with a “secret ingredient” when the competition begins.

In addition to his highly-acclaimed TV appearances, Fabio is Executive Chef of the Café Firenze in Moorpark,CA and will debut his new cookbook — “Viviani’s Café Firenze Cookbook”– July 22 . Fabio will appear at book signings in the Festival Mercantile on July 25 and 26. (taken from the website)

It looks a great time. If you want to check out the 2010 happenings and plan to visit you can go to the official website at: http://gilroygarlicfestival.com/