The pungent aroma—whether it’s been fermented, pickled, roasted or powdered—is impossible to avoid at the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival, a Saugerties institution since 1989. The herb is everywhere, stirred into lemonade, melded into fried pickles, folded into pierogi, and heaped on sample containers of kimchi or ice cream half-melted in paper cups. Garlic hangs in braids overhead, papery skins catching the afternoon light.

“I’m Slavic and a first-generation American,” said Lexi Zef, among the thousands of attendees at last weekend’s event at the Cantine Veterans Memorial Complex. “My family came here with plenty of recipes involving garlic.”

Zef, who cooks with garlic daily, favors kotleti, breaded chicken patties ground with egg, soaked bread, onions, and lots of garlic and then tossed in breadcrumbs and fried.

“When I’m sick, my grandma would give me a clove of raw garlic to eat,” Zef said. “If I was reluctant, she’d mash it up and put it in tea, and it made me feel better.”

The festival began 36 years ago, when Pat Reppert of Shale Hill Farm opened her fledgling herb business to the public, hoping to drum up interest in New York-grown garlic. She spread the word through her newsletter, “Notes from Shale Hill Farm.” To her surprise, attendees began to pour in to what became the first garlic festival in the Hudson Valley and perhaps even the East Coast. 

The next year, in 1990, hundreds came. Then more than a thousand. Within three years, Reppert was fielding frantic phone calls from garlic lovers begging for tickets. She realized the event had outgrown her farm and turned to the Kiwanis Club of Saugerties for support.

The festival moved to Cantine Field in 1992, when it drew 5,000 attendees. Within a few years, tens of thousands of garlic lovers turned up, creating 10-mile traffic backups on Route 9W. To mitigate traffic concerns and sustainably grow the festival, it was expanded to two days in 1996 and attendees were charged an entrance fee, now $15.

“We are so excited to host the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival again this year, and welcome vendors and visitors from across the region,” said Saugerties Town Supervisor Fred Costello Jr. The festival “celebrates the culinary and agricultural legacy of the Hudson Valley and plays an important economic role in Saugerties. We look forward to continuing to host this annual event for many years.”

The heart of the festival is the growers.

“It culminates the past 10 months of farm work, showcasing our best organically farmed garlic,” said Brenda Hugick, owner of the 65-year-old Hugick Farms in Mohawk.

This year, Hugick sold elephant garlic, German red, Georgian fire and music hardneck varieties, priced between $14.95 and $22.95 per pound—30% less than most online garlic seed companies.

“We prefer customers buy directly from our farm without the middleman,” Hugick said. “It’s challenging being a small family farmer in New York in 2025.”

The weather has been the biggest obstacle, she said. A wet early spring gave way to a dry June and July, leaving the garlic crop without the steady moisture it needs to thrive. Costs keep climbing, too.

“Each year, our baseline expenses just keep increasing,” Hugick said. “The festival is a necessity. It supports our family farm, helping pay part of our yearly taxes and recouping the high expenses of organic farming.”

Casey Hall, the field manager at Greig Farm in Red Hook, echoes Hugick’s words. The farm sells garlic for $18 per pound to support its mid-scale, local produce operation while it faces environmental, financial, and social challenges. Longer summer droughts and milder winters that result from a warming planet threaten crops like garlic that depend on consistent low temperatures and the insulation of straw mulch and snow for their dormancy, Hall said.

“It’s difficult for farmers to keep their heads above water without working themselves into the ground or spending time applying for grants—the funding for which is now threatened—that should be utilized for rest and community,” she said.

Farms like Greig face a vicious cycle, Hall said. Raising prices risks shutting out lower-income community members, but cutting costs often means mechanization, chemicals, and underpaying employees.

“Those who fall victim to hard times often sell their land, which is then developed, and with it, another small piece of our resiliency as a farming community is chipped away,” she said. 

Amid those hardships, “farmers connecting with their communities is absolutely paramount,” Hall said. The Garlic Festival “is of great importance to Greig Farm and the community. Events like this say that we, as farmers, are still here. We are still growing food, stewarding the land, and doing it all for you.”

Maggie Baribault is a contributing reporter. Send her correspondence at reporting@theoverlooknews.com.