Andrea Gaudet said she loves garlic, but isn't so sure it belongs in the chocolate chip cookies and fudge she sampled at the 19th annual Canadian Garlic Festival, held at the Ukrainian Seniors Centre off of Notre Dame Avenue Aug. 22.
“I wouldn't eat the fudge again,” she said. “The cookies tasted like eating garlic bread with chocolate chips in between. It was weird. It kind of hits you after the fact.”
The woman said she had sampled many of the other garlic specialties at the festival as well, including meatballs, flatbread, phyllo pastry, chili and balbushky (a type of bun stuffed with a garlicky filling).
“I'm so full, but I want more,” Gaudet laughed.
Sandra Sharko, president of the Ukrainian Seniors Centre, said the festival normally attracts about 5,000 people, but she expected that number to be a bit lower this year because of the rainy weather.
“Hopefully we don't end up with food left over,” she said. “If we do, then I guess the soup kitchen will benefit from our two weeks of cooking.”
Sharko, one of about 5,000 people of Ukrainian descent living in the Greater Sudbury area, said she loves the taste of garlic.
“Real garlic lovers absolutely love garlic,” she said. “Vitto brand makes special sausages with double garlic...We put sauerkraut on top, which has extra garlic. Some people also want fresh garlic on top of that.”
She said the proceeds from the garlic festival have gone towards a number of causes in the past, including the Sudbury Community Foundation, mobility aids for seniors and renovations to the Ukrainian Seniors Centre.
The event also features live entertainment.
Sisters Eliisa and Kaitlyn Makela, who belong to the Ukrainian School of Dance's troupe of teenage dancers, were among the performers at the event. They have been involved in traditional Ukrainian dancing since they were three years old.
“It takes a lot of effort, especially for the guys,” Eliisa said. “Guys have to kicks and flips and everything. Girls just have to do spins, but it still takes practice.”
Gilles Therrien, or the “Garlic Guy,” had a booth set up at the event, selling braids of the garlic he grows at his home in Blezard Valley. He said he grows a unique variety of garlic.
“I had six different kinds of garlic (growing), and I never kept track of it, so it all cross-pollinated, and it became my garlic,” he said.
“It's very strong. Sudbury is such an excellent place to grow garlic. Garlic really likes sulphur in the soil, and (local mining companies) have been dumping sulphur on us for a few years or more. The strength comes from the sulphur in the soil.”
Therrien invites those interested in purchasing garlic to phone him at 705-897-6897.
