My Day At The Hudson Valley Garlic Festival

Today I took my girls to the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival in Saugerties, New York. It was a beautiful day to walk around in the fresh air that was infused by garlic everywhere.

I don’t know about you but I am in love with garlic. I add garlic to almost every meal. If you know me and have had the chance to be THISCLOSE to me ;), chances are I probably smell like a garlic clove, which is ok by me.  Garlic is good stuff.  It’s good for the body (lowers your cholesterol, regulates your blood pressure and it does a lot more) and it helps keep vampires away. 🙂

You may not know this but I’ve been living in the Hudson Valley for 9 years and can you believe that today was my first time attending the festival? I’ve been dying to visit for a long time and today could not have been a more perfect day.  Today was the best day for a festival.  The sky was clear and blue with beautiful puffy white clouds and the humidity was low.

This year marked their 22nd anniversary and it’s sponsored by The Kiwanis Club of Saugerties. This festival is HUGE!! Since it’s only once a year, people from literally everywhere come to Saugerties to taste the wonderful things that are made with garlic.

I tasted all things garlic and loved every minute of it. In between tastes, we drank lemonade to cool us down but it didn’t work quite well. Everyone was sweating which was good because we were probably sweating out the garlic in our system. Lol

I bought garlic and olive oil organic bread, garlic olives, garlic Parmesan popcorn, garlic infused pizza, potato balls (relleno de papa), garlic chocolate chip cookies (it was very different – would NOT eat that again), garlic bulbs, and lots of lemonade (no, it wasn’t garlic-flavored, lol).

Everyone that visits the garlic festival has an opportunity to buy the spiciest, the best variety and of course the freshest garlic ever and basically anything you can think of that you can add garlic to.

There are food vendors selling delicious and unique foods, craft vendors selling clothes and souvenirs and garlic specialists to teach people about the importance of garlic.

There’s something for everyone!

Saugerties, NY is only 40 minutes away from my house and about 2 hours from New York City.

If you’re a garlic lover like I am and if you plan on going, get ready to spend some cash because things are not cheap there.  Admission is $10 for adults and kids under 13 years old get in free.

You’ll leave the festival with less money but you will definitely leave with the taste of garlic in your mouth and some goodies to bring home in your hands.