Virginia Garlic & Wine Fest 2007

Garlic Fest 2007 has come and gone in a blur. This year, the weather was incredibly perfect, sunny and cool. Saturday, when we attended, there was a flurry of activity and a mad crush of people. It's nice to know that it's caught on after all of these years. Rebec really deserves more love & accolades than it seems to get for hosting such a wonderful event.

If you're looking at this wondering how you get in on the action next year-- just bookmark http://www.rebecwinery.com/. You can actually buy your tickets in advance online when next year's festival rolls around.

We went strolling around the booths to check all of the crafts, food vendors and jewelry. There was a quite a variety as far as home grown herbs and garlic for sale. Food varied from crabcake sandwiches to egg rolls. They pretty much had anything you could want including BBQ and philly cheese steak sandwiches.

The overall theme this year, we thought, was the "cowboy" hat. :) Either tons of vendors were selling them or folks showed up with their own! I blame Bret Michaels and the Rock of Love for this sudden resurgance of the rock-n-roll cowboy hat which I thought died (or should've died) 3 years ago! :)

I have a top three for you from the day:
1. Rebec's Reisling-- light, crisp, lovely polished finish
2. Red Rocker Cashew Brittle-- I could've eaten my weight's worth! They're not lying on the label when they say, "It's really, really good!" LOL!
You can order yours online at http://www.redrockercandy.com/
3. Cornerstone Farm's Garlic Powder-- I buy a ton every year and somehow always manage to run out. I seriously can NOT make chili without it. And not to mention the family that runs this farm are nicest folk you'd want to meet. They have a website, but it's not set up for e-commerce: http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/community.dll?ep=16&ext=1&groupid=140532&ck=

But, I found out this year you can call and they will ship you more! :)
1249 Tate Road, Reidsville, NC 27320
336.349.5106

We had a prime spot this year in front of the sumo wrestling mat(http://www.bouncedepartment.com/):
Between the reisling and the wrestling, I had perma-grin. So, in all, it was a great day. But, I do recommend going on Sunday if you can help it-- it's always much more lowkey and relaxed than Saturday.

Later on in the evening, we found ourselves at Bull Branch for dinner. It's a local, eclectic dining spot that seems to be popular with the 30-something, hipster crowd in Lynchburg, VA. I swear they read my blog and stole my goat cheese/marinara dip! They also make a killer hummus. It was here that I found my second Reisling/wine gem of the day-- Dr. Loosens Reisling. (http://www.drloosen.com/v01_drlriesling.htm) It's excellent and I highly recommend you getting your hands on some! It's everything I want a Reisling to be-- slightly on the dry side, with a fruity bouquet/smell and a nice, well-rounded finish. Don't worry if you didn't follow all of that, all you need to know is that you'll be nodding your head in agreement once you have some of this.That's our trip in a nutshell. Wanted to leave you with a picture of the most gorgeous and catlike of Whippets on the planet, Zell. She is part of the lovely family that hosted us for Garlic Fest and introduced us to Bull Branch. You know who you are, we love you guys!