Companion and I got to Saugerties at 10 A.M., just an hour after the
opening gun, and still had to deal with the Mongol Hordes streaming in from
the Interstate. The traffic people keep changing the route into the
grounds and parking so nobody has an unfair advantage. Truthfully, things
flowed pretty well even if we did have close to a half mile walk from the
parking in, I think, Poughkeepsie. There are shuttle busses for the wimps,
but I figured I needed to "pre-burn" some of the food.
The weather was absolutely perfect; warmed up to the upper 70s by
afternoon, with a light breeze, modulated by traveling through thousands of
the aforementioned Mongols.
Stopped first off all to abuse Dave Stern at the Garlic Seed Foundation
booth. He was showing off some shallots the size of baseballs; claims that
cutting the tops off when they start to fall over keeps 'em growing. I'll
have to try that. The garlic growers are now in two loops of stalls, plus
some spaces along the "midway." And the promoters restored the lecture
tent, which had been missing at least last year, so the covered pavilion
with its lousy acoustics and noise from adjacent bandstand was only used
for some cooking demonstrations. Big improvement, I'm going to write
Kiwanis and thank them.
Pat Reppert, who started this whole thing years ago was in residence at the
"Queen of Garlic" tent- stopped by to pay homage and give thanks.
The highlight for my Lady and self was a talk by Jim Duke, supposedly on
the health benefits of garlic. He has a rare gift of making medical lingo
make sense, and digresses even more than your humble writer does. Lots of
information, with handouts we were forbidden to look at while he was
speaking, on various healing herbs. I'll be doing a lot of winter reading
in that area, as well as asking my Dr. some pointed questions at my
upcoming 3,000 mile checkup! I'll post a web link when I find the
handouts somewhere under the "Nirvana Weird" garlic and the pickles and the
oyster mushrooms...
More food than ever, more people than ever, even more Arts and Crap than
ever! I actually walked down the craft and tchochke row this year. You
gotta do what you gotta do.
I had a stinkin' good time!

Peace,


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

Sorry that I couldn't make it and missed you!! Sounds like you had a
good time. That woulda been one hellova walk if they parked you in Pok. ;-)


--
Steve

Never read the fine print. There ain't no way you're going to like it.