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August 10, 2006 issue

Watauga County Farmers’ Market Garlic Harvest Festival and Customer Appreciation Day August 12

On Saturday, August 12, members of the Watauga County Farmers’ Market will express their appreciation to the local community of customers and supporters of local agriculture with live music, dancing and a cookout. Customer Appreciation Day is also the ideal time to purchase freshly harvested local garlic. The cookout will include fire-roasted garlic that everyone will have the opportunity to sample.

Garlic’s history is somewhat mysterious: it grows only as a domestic plant. It is thought to have originated in Central Asia, where a closely related ancestor Allium longicuspis still grows. Garlic spread to China and the Mediterranean region via ancient trade routes. By 3000 BC, garlic had spread to Egypt. Garlic was found in the tomb of Tutankhamen.

Of all the alliums (onion/garlic family), garlic is the strongest-flavored and most potently medicinal. It has been used traditionally to cure earaches, purge intestinal worms, treat coughs and relieve high blood pressure.

Garlic grown in the High Country is most often one of the hardneck varieties. These are more flavorful than the softneck types commonly found in grocery stores. The only downside to hardneck varieties is that they lack the shelflife of the more mundane softnecks. Hardneck varieties such as German Extra Hardy, Red Rocambole, Music, Rusky Red and Inchelium Red are in great demand by gourmet chefs and herbalists alike.

Local garlic growers include Charles Church of Watauga River Farms, Rob Danford of Danford’s Permaculture Garden, Richard Boylan of Otus Branch Farm and Hillary Wilson, Alice Brooke Wilson and others at Maverick Farms.

Extension Agent Richard Boylan said, “I strongly believe that garlic could become one of the core alternative crops for our region: it is a valuable food and powerful healer that can thrive in the High Country. It fits in well with sustainable multiyear rotations of other vegetables such as potatoes, brassicas, cucurbits and corn.”

But it’s not the easiest crop to grow. “Garlic is also very labor-intensive,” Boylan added. “It takes nine months to grow, and must receive careful stewardship every step of the way. Then, if a farmer wishes to plant garlic in the coming year, s/he must save 15% of the harvest as planting stock.”

Head to the Watauga County Farmers’ Market on Saturday, August 12, to learn everything you ever wanted to know about High Country garlic. The Farmers’ Market is located at Horn in the West in Boone.