Garlic Festival

But wait a sec, "there's more than one kind of garlic", you ask? Damn straight. Over 600 in the world with about 150 varieties from 11 "families" commonly grown! Some of these varieties included Purple Stripe, Porcelain, Rocambole, Creole, and Silverskin, each with their own unique characteristics and levels of intensity.

Eventually, the garlic growing became more than a handful of passionate volunteers could handle. 

So, with the sponsorship support of Peavey Mart, Garlic City Market was born in 2017! The inaugural event was held at the Piper Creek Restoration Agriculture Project with a line up of cars that stretched along 40th Ave for over two kilometers.. #OMGarlic

Who knew?? Haha, WE did!

GCM ran again in 2018 at the Parkvale Lodge. That same year we connected with a man named Bob Scammell. Himself, an avid urban garlic grower in Red Deer. He introduced us to the famous French garlic, Rose de Lautrec, and the softneck Red Toch which we became the stewards of when Bob passed away later that year.

In 2019, Garlic City Market ran again at the Piper Creek Community Gardens to support the timber frame barn raising, and then, Covid hit and the festival regretfully went into hibernation. BUT, we had lots of garlic to get us through those tough times.

It wasn't very long until a man named Art van Zanten brought forward an idea that would soon become the Common Ground Garden Project. The project became the perfect place for us to resurrect Garlic City Market in the fall of 2022. It was well-received with perfect sunny weather and the opportunity to reach a whole new audience of people!

We've started building up our garlic supplies again and look forward to reconnecting with our festival friends in BC in the years ahead.