Everything Happens to Roses at the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival in Saugerties – Daily Freeman

SAUGERTIES, NY – The ever-inspiring bulb of many uses returned on Saturday, October 2 at the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival with visitors of all ages buying and planning how culinary delights can change the future.

Among those with the most ambitious plans was 7-year-old Eliot Lirtsman of Saugerties. She swallowed a shot of garlic vinegar and greeted the seller. It was an endorsement born out of the study of flavors and seasonings. A quick question about what you need to know about using garlic in cooking comes up with an articulate answer.

“When you think of garlic and vinegar, you think it (is) really sour or too spicy, but then it tastes really good,” she said. “It’s fine if you only have a little, but if you have a whole ton of it, then it might be too much.”

Lirtsman’s goal is to become a chef, but also has an ambition to become President of the United States, claiming that both professions can help people in very important ways.

“Being president could also help people feed themselves,” she said.

Sellers said the gap year due to COVID-19 left a garlic-sized hole in their hearts, although it quickly filled up for jeweler Barbara Willmer, whose booth was the first that visitors saw from the Market Street entrance.

“I’ve been doing this festival for 10 years and it’s my fair,” she said. “Watching people come in and smile is like finding a little sunshine in life. People are fun, they love garlic, they love crafts, they love music.

For garlic growers, the gap year has required them to hone their skills online for sale. Alpha Garlic Farm owner Neal Erkson said it’s important, but it doesn’t match the joy of meeting the people who will be using his products.

“I kinda like the personal interaction,” he said. “The farm is something that I love to bring to people and it is something that people can take home. “

Erkson also suggested that drug companies need to do more studies on how garlic can be used in future vaccinations against all diseases. “There is nothing more powerful than garlic,” he said.

Ingersoll Farm owner Bill Ingersoll was delighted to see his sons and other family members answer visitors’ questions. He said part of the fun was having an artistic aspect to the displays, with his sales based on both the quality of the food and the use of garlic braids.

“The garlic display was the idea of ​​my cousin and my mother,” he said. “I am a third generation farmer. The first generation was my grandfather and he didn’t like art very much, but he had three daughters and art was born with my mother and now it is passed on to my boys.

The festival will continue Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission at the door is $ 10.