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