9th Annual Long Island Garlic Festival

I have to admit, I had no idea there were that many varieties of Garlic beyond the Elephant and Italian White. At this festival I came across, Turkish Red, Italian White, German White, French Red, Rocambole, Music, Pskem, Elephant Garlic, Purple Stripe. Who knew?

​People are fanatics about garlic, like my father is about his fig tree, so I investigated further to see how many varieties of garlic there are. If you are interested to learn more about the varieties of garlic and its benefits, you can read all about it at the Garlic Blog

Garden of Eve Farm edible snacks at the festival

Garlic Ice Cream

The vanilla and chocolate garlic ice cream peeked my curiosity. I chose the vanilla thinking this might possibly be the best combination. I thought the garlic flavor combined with the vanilla was palatable enough, however the "garlic buzz" at the festival was, "It needed more garlic!" I thought to myself, "What would happen if the garlic was roasted with some turbinado sugar, then mixed into the ice cream?" I don't know, maybe not. You will not see me experimenting with that here. Let's leave it to the garlic fanatics to figure it out.

Roasted Rocambole Soup alla Garden of Eve Farm

Many people asked me with caution, "How is the garlic soup?" People seemed more cautious about the garlic soup than the garlic ice cream, go figure! "So, how was the soup?" Not bad, I thought it could be creamier but the flavor was nice and not too overpowering. My new friend Will who is shown below thinks the Garden of Eve should not hang their hat on making soup, but he is a competitor of course so I am sure that bantering goes back and forth between them. I should have asked Garden of Eve what they thought of Will's soup.

Garlic Castilian Soup alla Will

This is Will and he is a garlic fanatic and passionate about his soup. He was the 2009 winner of the Garlic Cookoff for his Garlic Castilian Soup made with Music Garlic which has a sweet flavor. I enjoyed his soup very much but was more interested in his garlic donut idea. I will not share with you our discussion considering it was "top secret", so I am hoping he goes for it next year so I can taste it. He asked me what I thought of the garlic ice cream and you know what he said? "I hear it needs more garlic!" Maybe he can figure out my garlic ice cream idea!

Horman's Best Pickles

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I picked up some of Horman's Best Pickles, Garlic of course and my favorite the Horseradish which had a spicy bite and a nice crunch.

Arlotta Food Studio  ​

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Arlotta Food Studio, makes specialty olive oils which are made in unfiltered small batches and cold-pressed from late-harvested, organic California olives. They also make exclusive balsamic vinegar, aged for over 25 years, as well as artisan made air dried pasta and specialty tapenades. I am typically not a fan of infused oils but these flavors were stunning, bright and buttery and the balsamic was sweet and smooth. I went home with their Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Traditional Balsamic to eventually pair these products with something delicious in the near future.

My father came with me to this festival and he saw they had a Fig Balsamic Vinegar. That is all he needed to see which stirred up a fig conversation trumping anything garlic.​ I think Mario to the left was showing my father a photo of his family's fig tree.

Overview about Garden of Eve Organic Farm and Market

Chris and Eve Kaplan-Walbrecht are owners of the Garden of Eve Farm. The farm began as just a garden in 2001. Today, the farm is on 100 acres and boasts to 70 varieties of vegetables, 20 herbs and 30 flowers which are all certified organic. They also have Nigerian Dwarf Goats, 1,500 Rhodie Island Red laying hens, Bourbon Red Heritage Turkeys, Border Leicester Sheep, and Maremma Livestock Guard dogs.

note: I am uncertain which local cook won the Iron Chef Garlic Competition or the Garlic Eating Contest! If you find out please let me know.