The smell of success: Garlic Festival packs them in for another year

It's never hard to find Sudbury's Garlic Festival – even if you're new to the city, all you need to do is follow your nose.

About 3,000 people did just that on Sunday, crowding into a closed-off section of Paris Street to sample an array of garlic treats – cookies, fudge, butter tarts, ice cream, butters, buns, spreads and, of course, several different varieties of garlic cloves.

"Wonderful day, huge crowd,” said organizer Sandra Sharko, as volunteers walked by with more aromatic treats for the crowd. “We have more vendors than we've ever had before, great children's area, a couple of new appetizers."

Students from College Boréal's culinary program took part in the festival for the first time this year, Sharko said. Among the appetizers they prepared was a cucumber filled with a garlic mousse (“it's just lovely!”) and a choulx pastry filled with garlic-infused chickpeas.

"It's the first time Boréal's run the culinary program during the summer, so they're just finishing up next week, actually,” she said. “So it worked out perfectly. We're glad to have them."

Sharko said all the festival's sponsors were quick to sign up for the event, and some of the vendors have been with them for more than a decade.

"It is a popular festival," she said. "Some of our vendors have been here 10, 12 years, and they say this is the best one they have ever come to. And these are all Ontario growers that come here."

One vendor new to the festival was selling a product called Incredible Spread 'Em, a soybean-based, vegan, gluten free, lactose and MSG free spread.

It originated Exeter, north of London, said Jacqulin Whyte, who was selling it on behalf of founder Mary Moody.

"Her and her husband developed this recipe over 20 years ago, and have been travelling around selling it because we think it's so fantastic, we want everybody to taste it," Whyte said. "It goes great on everything, from your baked potato, your corn on the cob, barbequed steak, pasta, rice, soup sauce -- it just kicks everything up a notch, instead of plain old butter, margarine or oil."

She said they travel to garlic and other festivals across the province and decided to come North this time because of word-of-mouth about how good it is.

"We had quite a few of our customers suggest this festival to us, because it's very good," she said. "We know some of the other vendors here from other festivals, and they spoke very highly of it, so we thought we'd give it a try.”

Why do Sudburians love garlic so much?

"I don't know, we're big garlic eaters," Sharko said. "We have the chocolate ice cream, and in other years, people have asked us for fresh garlic to put on top of their chocolate ice cream. So garlic eaters are garlic eaters. They like lots of garlic -- the more you put in, the more they like it."

An always popular part of the event is watching someone create a garlic braid. Nancy Onucky showed off one with 25 heads, as a small crowd gathered to watch another being created.

"It's for hanging, for decoration, and if you keep it in a dry, cool place, it will last for a whole year," Onucky said. "People like having it in a braid -- it's easier, because you just have to break off a little piece at a time. And it's for good luck and prosperity, too, I was told."