“The garlic festival at Koonya is quirky and quaint with a spirit of hospitality and inclusiveness intrinsic to this little corner of the earth. The quiet, sleepy hamlet of Koonya awakens with the gathering of garlic lovers from far and wide.”
~ Sally Wise
The hall is spruced and decorated, the marquee is erected and the grounds prepared for a day of celebration. The aroma of garlic-infused dishes, prepared by chefs ranging in status from A-grade international celebrity to local-grade hand-me-down knowledgeable, fills the air.
There are sounds of music, laughter, chatter and hubbub. Local dignitaries busily meet and greet and global experts in the field of garlic growing give talks to those who aspire to better their crops.
Many varieties of garlic are on display, with quality and size a matter of pride.
The Koonya Garlic Festival is a celebration of, but perhaps more importantly a homage to, one of the world’s most humble but most dynamic foods. As Sally Wise, Australia’s best-selling cookery writer, said in the foreword to my book Garlic Feast Cookbook, garlic’s place in history is as undeniable as its therapeutic properties, and its place in folklore as indelible as its contribution to culinary evolution.
The Koonya Garlic Festival is a unique and magical experience. The hamlet of Koonya, up the road a little from Port Arthur, is the perfect backdrop for a garlic harvest festival. Tasmania, and the Tasman Peninsula in particular, grow some of the finest-quality garlic in the world. The island’s cool temperate climate, rich soils and unpolluted air create the perfect conditions for a wide variety of garlic to flourish. The ideal growing conditions plus the outstanding natural beauty of the Tasman Peninsula have seen a proliferation of growers and artisan food producers in the area. They are sustained by and sustain the movement by consumers to experience food in new ways and to live more sustainable lives.
The Koonya Garlic Festival was the brainchild of sculptural artist, teacher and passionate garlic grower Dr Colin Langridge. He and a group of volunteers decided to create a little piece of magic in this tranquil enclave of Tasmania.
“I was director of the first two Koonya Garlic Festivals and am a dedicated grower and consumer of garlic,” he said. “A group of my friends living in the Koonya area had been gathering annually for years to celebrate the garlic harvest with a barbecue and a beer. Here was a group of individuals passionate about garlic. It just needed a public event such as the festival for all the garlic lovers out there to gather and meet.”
What started out as a single clove of an idea quickly gathered a head of steam and became what is now a highly successful, boutique annual event that attracts throngs of passionate garlic lovers, growers and foodies from around Australia and beyond.
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Garlic Festivals are popular in Europe, the UK, Canada and the US, with thousands of lovers and growers gathering annually to celebrate the garlic harvest. The idea took a while to reach our shores, but in 2014 it arrived with Australia’s first garlic festival held at Orange in NSW, followed quickly by the second – and now Australia’s premier – garlic festival at Koonya.
Tasmania also now boasts a second, at Selbourne in the north-west, celebrating both the tomato and garlic harvest. In the 2016-17, Victoria will host a special day of garlic celebration in Melbourne as well as celebrating the launch of if its first garlic festival in Gippsland.
Our love of garlic is not just something of recent times. Whether roasted, fried, pickled, smoked, fermented, soy-infused, pureed, poached, sautéed or confit, garlic has been a cornerstone of cuisines throughout the world almost since the dawn of cooking. It is one of the most valued and enduring ingredients we have.
It is also one of the less understood. Despite its superstar status, many people are unaware of the full range of capabilities of this hardy bulb: the extent of its health properties, culinary uses, flavour complexities; and how to grow, identify, store or preserve the many varieties available.
This has started to change with the emergence of Australia’s garlic festivals and recent publication of two books. The first, in 2015, by Australia’s leading garlic expert, Penny Woodward, was Garlic: An organic guide to knowing, growing and using garlic, from Australian Whites and Tasmanian Purples to Korean Reds and Shandongs. It is an essential guide for both new and experienced garlic growers. The second book, published in 2016, inspired by and celebrating the Koonya Garlic Festival, was my own coffee table cookbook and culinary garlic resource, Garlic Feast.
In recent years Australia, New Zealand, the US and Europe have also been experiencing a food renaissance with consumers seeking to experience food in a new way, giving rise to an explosion of farmers markets and creating space for unique, quality boutique festivals such as the Koonya Garlic Festival to emerge and thrive.
To return to the words of Sally Wise, “The Koonya Garlic Festival is perhaps one of the most fascinating and enjoyable garlic experiences you will ever have. Even as I write this, I sense a buzz and excitement in the air as the time for the next annual festival approaches. The Tasman Peninsula is a wild and wonderful place. The natural beauty of the region has a way of seeping into your very being and is something that will never really leave you and can never be denied.”
For more information, see www.koonyagarlicfestival.com.