Highwood 1st Annual Garlic Fest - August 14th from 4-9pm

http://highwoodgarlicfest.com/CHW%20201 ... poster.pdf

I've got a pocket-full of Tic-Tacs. Anyone else going?

Hi,

I will be judging the tomato contest for the Highwood Historical Society at the same event.

Regards,

I will be there at some point. Cathy- are there going to be any tomatoes available for purchase other than at the farmers market?

Thanks, Will

Hi,

I think these are privately owned tomatoes whose disposal is the owner's whim.

If they are available for sale, I have no idea.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:I think these are privately owned tomatoes whose disposal is the owner's whim.

Are these privately owned Highwood tomatoes or Highland Park tomatoes? Now I'm really looking forward to tomorrow!

This year - Wednesday August 15th from 4-9pm - http://celebratehighwood.com/garlicfest.html

This year - August 14th - 4pm - 9pm

Before coming back to Chicago, I particpated in (and won) some professional chef competitons in S. Fla. Part of my past that few if any knows. Cut to Sun PM when someone that did know (SteveZ) told me about this festival. I emailed them Mon AM, they replied and this is the result:

"And new this year, Garlic Fest welcomes a second competition judged by award winning Garlic Chef, Chicago’s own Alan Lake, who is three-time winner of the Delray Beach Garlic Festival’s Professional Chef Competition. Author of The Garlic Manifesto, Chef Lake will be on-site to weigh in on the Festivals’ finest garlic creations. Attendees can visit Chef Lake throughout the fest at his booth where he will share his garlic stories, recipes, tips and have garlic posters to autograph."

Would love to see any and all, so please stop by if so inclined. And thanks Steve. Good looking out.

Hi,

This is close enough to home, I will certainly stop by.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

This is close enough to home, I will certainly stop by.

Regards,

Me too. Looking forward to it.

=R=

I will be there. Always a good time. 2 years ago my daughter had her picture in the pioneer press eating the garlic ice cream.

I went to inferno fest a couple of weeks ago and the extra hot tamales that Casa de Isaac was selling were unbelievably hot. Could only get about half way through one. My son had one bite and threw in the towel.

-Will

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-08-05/news/ct-tl-lk-0808-entertainment-20130805_1_garlic-chef-eric-falberg-delray-beach-garlic-festival

Alan,

The event is listed as running from 4-9 but as far as your participation goes, is there a preferred time for us to come by?

=R=

I'll have a booth but towards the end i'll be judging. Not certain on the schedule yet or where that's going to take place. Will post when I know more, prob sometime tomorrow. Thanks for your support though.

I am looking forward to this. Have always wanted to attend the Gilroy Garlic Fest in Ca. but this is so much more convenient and I am guessing that there will not be 30,000 people there!

Gilroy does about 150,000 over the wkend.

Will be in the booth they're setting up for me until around 7. Then the stage to announce the winner of the best garlic dish.

I read that attendance at Gilroy this year dropped down to 100,000 for the three day period. Perhaps the Highwood festival is diluting the customer pool!

Cinnamon Girl wrote:I read that attendance at Gilroy this year dropped down to 100,000 for the three day period. Perhaps the Highwood festival is diluting the customer pool!

They probably heard that the Esteemed Coordinator of the LTH North Lunch Group will be in attendance in a couple of hours.

Just out of curiosity, doesn't a Wednesday seem odd for a festival?

zoid wrote:Just out of curiosity, doesn't a Wednesday seem odd for a festival?

Hi,

Highwood's weekly farmer's market is Wednesday evening. This event is scheduled to attract more participants.

Don't forget, tonight is the Highwood Historical Society's tomato contest, too.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Don't forget, tonight is the Highwood Historical Society's tomato contest, too.

Throwing or eating?

Hi,

Cinnamon Girl and I walked the full circuit looking for tomatoes and fresh vegetables to buy. I was informed this is not a farmer's market, it is instead a gourmet market. This translates to a line of vendor tents to buy food to eat for dinner or snacking later.

It was great to see Alan Lake, who was there to judge 41 foods and beverages all by himself.

I bumped into SteveZ walking clockwise, while we walked counterclockwise around the circuit of tents. I met WillG and son standing in line at Moishe and Isaac's.

Found the tomato judges wearing the sash I found difficult to tolerate when I was judge a few years ago. I was lucky enough to judge on a hot humid night with the sash concentrating the miserable ambient conditions.

Hopefully someday I may make it to Gilroy for the big blow out.

Regards,

I was there last night too, but I didn't seen anyone! Not that I would know most of you. Anyway, I didn't arrive until later, close to 8 p.m. - too late to sample any garlic ice cream, which I was told sold out by 6:30. I did try some garlic chocolate chip cookies, garlic toffee, a garlic martini and garlic popcorn. The toffee especially featured a hint of garlic at first bite, which faded - the cookies were like that too, and the martini had had cucumber, not garlic, as the dominant flavor. All of these things were tasty, though.

My favorite item, though, was a sample from Ono Hawaiian Shaved Ice. When we asked if they had any garlic items, the woman (I've forgotten her name but my friend got a business card, so I can access it) brought out some garlic sugar pieces she had made for the competition, but didn't end up entering because of some rule or procedure she hadn't prepared for in advance. She wasn't selling them, I don't believe, just letting people try them on request. These were deliciously sweet and garlicky, but not overpowering. I'm tempted to try making it myself!

I've passed through Gilroy, not during the big festival, but just the scent of that place was so delicious. Would love to do that too someday!

We showed up at around 6:30 and were astounded by how crowded it was. It seems they did a great job promoting the event. Traffic was at a stand-still several blocks away from the event. I joked that it was the worst of all worlds -- being in the 'burbs and there being no parking (we ended up parking about 4 blocks from the event, which wasn't too bad). We had a nice time chatting with Alan -- and stevez -- and walking around Everts Park. Several of the food vendors looked promising -- La Casa de Isaac was there and Isaac himself was working their stall -- but many of the most promising looking stalls had very long lines in front of them, so we just window shopped. We didn't run into any LTHers other than Steve.

I'm not sure which entrant ended up winning but Alan mentioned to us that one of his favorites was the entry from the Bent Fork Bakery. When we arrived at their booth, they were sold out of the item they'd entered in the competition but their wares looked good. We bought a few items, with the clear stand-out being a miniature Sour Cherry Pie, that was just about perfect in every way. The crust was buttery, flaky and had a great, long-lasting flavor. The filling was comprised entirely of plump, whole cherries that were tart and delicious. It wasn't overly moist, so the crust stayed nicely intact but it wasn't dry either. This was a very skillfully made little pie. So, not only did we have a nice evening but I also learned about a bakery, very near my house, that turns out some really nice stuff. All in all, it was an enjoyable and productive evening.

=R=

Bent Fork Bakery
333 Waukegan Ave
Highwood, IL 60040
(847) 926-4438

ronnie_suburban wrote:being in the 'burbs and there being no parking

My own personal hell.

I believe Alan told us the winning entry was a chocolate covered black garlic. Sounds pretty awful to me, but he said it worked. If anyone wants to make this for us to try at the LTH picnic, come on in to The Spice House, and I will donate some black garlic to you! The one draw back at this event, to me anyway, is that there were not any farmers selling produce. One of Cathy's friends told us that they used to, but they changed the rules. What kind of farmer's market does not have farmers? I found this concept extremely disconcerting.

Jazzfood wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:being in the 'burbs and there being no parking

My own personal hell.

Hi,

I parked at the train station, then walked at most just over one block.

Regards,

I had a great time at Garlic Fest. I was very surprised by both how large the turnout was and also by the lack of farmers at the Farmers Market. Still, there were enough food vendors and activities going on to keep me interested.

Chef Alan Lake Pontificates on Garlic


Cathy2 and a Lady From the Historical Society


I didn't get a chance to taste any of the winning entries, but among the many items I did get to taste my personal favorite was a Margarita and roasted garlic pizza from The Pizza Via, a mobile wood burning oven pizza setup.

The Pizza Via in Action








In addition to the winning food items, they also crowned the 2013 Garlic Queen. The eventual winner, Julie Brugioni, is pictured 2nd from the left, though I thought for sure the older woman on the right would be the winner. She seemed to be the crowd favorite.

Garlic Queen Contestants

One of the vendors told me that the Highwood Gourmet Farmer's Market really stresses the "gourmet" part of the market rather than the "farmers" part - so no flowers and produce, but plenty of prepared food items. Sadly, pizza from the mobile oven was all sold out when we finally tried to get some during the last hour of the fest. Sorry I missed that!