Garlic Festival offers food, garlic and community

Gray and drizzling outside, the lights underneath the roof of the Good Ol’ Days Park pavilion drew people into the “mostly annual” Garlic Festival last Friday evening.

“Wailing” Aaron Jennings sang cowboy songs, such as “Kaw-Liga,” heard above the sounds of friends and families visiting, and the 16 vendors selling produce and crafts.

The air was fragrant with tomato sauce, garlic, spices, and peppers roasting at Fat Pika Farmstead’s table. Mounds of bright pumpkins, boxes of glossy peppers, fat heads of garlic, tomatoes small and large, and autumn bouquets were spots of color around the perimeter of the concrete pad. Artisans also brought paintings and crafted items. Down the middle of the space was seating for the diners.

Manning the mulled wine and cider and beer from the Ronan Cooperative Brewery table was Ryan Pilsbury, treasurer of the Mission Falls Market. The Friday event is a regular feature of St Ignatius life, Pillsbury said, and the board is trying to restore it to pre-COVID vibrancy.

Although Pillsbury and his wife are new to the community, they’ve jumped right into volunteering at the Mission Falls Market, putting up the signs, opening the gate, and other volunteer tasks.

The Garlic Festival is one event the board is bringing back. Although last year’s festival was smaller, this year's event sold out.

“This year we made food for 100 people,” Pillsbury said.

No surprise since the menu was yummy with garlic-heavy lasagna, leek and potato soup, kale salad, dinner rolls, and fancy cupcakes for dessert. Pillsbury and his wife also picked 200 pounds of apples for attendees to press into cider at an on-site press.

The festival marks the final day of the market until next spring. With good food, shopping, and friends and neighbors to chat with, it transformed Good Ol’ Days park into a lighted oasis on a rainy evening.