The South Cariboo Garlic Festival attracted thousands despite cloudy weather this past weekend.
Garlic is a common species of bulbous flowering plant - whose closest relatives include the onion, shallot and leek - and for almost the last twenty-four years, the South Cariboo has had a festival dedicated to it.
"100 Mile House is in a great growing area (for garlic) - you wouldn't think of it by our winters, but when you plant at the end of September, the beginning of October, in the winter - it just stays in the ground there - and when it comes out in July, we get really nice, big garlic," stated Teresa Wager, the festival coordinator for the South Cariboo Garlic Festival.
The festival began in 2000 at Forest Grove, only for it to move, once to Centennial Park and then to the Lac La Hache Community Club grounds, where it has been held every August since 2010 - next to being cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wager says that she loves the festival because of the smiling, happy faces, the great atmosphere and the presence of so much allium sativum, garlic's Latin name. She explained garlic is utilized in all sorts of unique ways.
"Lots of garlic sauces, garlic juices, garlic bakery items - I saw in the alcohol section - there is a garlic cider, and there's garlic ice cream - it's just everything garlic that you can think of," Wager explained. "There are over 35 types of garlic here right now, so you've got everything from red, Russian and Yugoslavian."
However, not every single vendor was selling garlic during the festival. One of them was Millie Barnett a retired felter who came up from Cranbrook, B.C. Barnett was selling felted animals and other characters she hand-stitched using special barbed needles.
Barnett stated that she decided to participate in the garlic festival after the coordinator came to her during a show in Vernon, BC and told her about the event.
"So it was word of mouth," Barnett said. "I'm enjoying it. It's been easy to come in and get set up. People have been very helpful - and the weather's not bad."
Other vendors were selling garlic at the festival like Morgan Stewart, the owner and operator of Quesnel's Three C's Farms Ltd. While her business focuses on providing quality crops and ethically raised lambs, they were also selling some Red Russian garlic at the festival which has a rich complex flavour when cooked. Stewart says that her personal favourite type of garlic is Persian Star - citing the spice of the garlic.
Stewart has good things to say about this year's garlic festival.
"It's a good crowd - I mean, the rain was a bit of a bummer this morning (Saturday), but it's turned around, and it's a great crowd," stated Stewart.
According to Teresa Wager, the festival ultimately attracted thousands of visitors - with the parking being completely full, leading to the organizers having to start overflow parking on Saturday.
"This community - Lac La Hache, only has 300 people in it, and you look at 100 volunteers have come out from the South Cariboo to volunteer at this - I think it's just a great community builder, and I love the idea and to get this many people who are supporting our community - I think it's fantastic," Wager said.
