B1
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 2022
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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, AUG. 20, 2022 • B1
HOW DOES
YOUR GARLIC
GROW?
A harvest awaits, with decorative items made from garlic cloves on display.
Clatskanie Garlic Festival to celebrate harvest
By M.J. CODY
For The Astorian
‘W
e may never see a year like this again
in our lifetimes,” Ian Glasser said.
He was talking about this year’s
remarkable garlic crop.
Glasser, of Columbia Gorge Garlic, along with other
growers, artists, bakers, crafters and artisans, will bring
garlic and heirloom tomatoes to the Clatskanie Garlic
Festival, set for Saturday.
“It’s been unbelievable,” Darro Breshears-Routon
said, chiming in to express her excitement about the
season.
“We want a dry harvest, not have to pull bulbs out of
the mud. But this is the best garlic year we’ve ever had,”
Breshears-Routon said. “The bulbs are huge. I’m so
excited for people to see and taste the garlic this year.”
She, along with husband Steve Routon, started the
Clatskanie Garlic Festival nine years ago. “We wanted
to build our own home and fi nd a south facing slope for
cool summers and warm winters to grow vegetables,”
Breshears-Routon said of the pair’s move to Clatskanie
from Portland.
After hand-building their home, they spent a year
reclaiming a meadow. They became enchanted with
garlic after reading Stanley Gardner’s book, “A Gar-
lic Testament: Seasons on a Small New Mexico Farm.”
“The soil preparation was epic,” Routon said. He’s
a fi rm believer that the secret to growing good garlic in
the Northwest is the soil. The pair call their farm “Tilth-
works” after tilth, the cultivation of the land.
Their primary crop now is “a modest little allium:
garlic,” as Routon puts it. Currently, the couple’s garden
produces 13 garlic varieties along with carrots, beets,
broccoli, caulifl ower, corn and beans. “Tilthworks is
basically home to some serious garlic geekage,” he
said.
“We do the planting and pulling by hand,” Rou-
ton added . “ No machinery is involved. It’s hard work
but we enjoy it. The book really caught our attention,
Handling a set of garlic gloves, ready for the event.
CLATSKANIE GARLIC FESTIVAL
Clatskanie Farmers Market, 60 Lillich Street
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday
www.clatskaniefarmersmarket.com
how garlic brings people together and captures a com-
munity. I just loved the Clatskanie Farmers Market so
much and thought, ‘Hey, why not do something diff er-
ent to really set our community apart and draw people
from around the area? Why not celebrate garlic?’”
That idea seems to have caught the attention of oth-
ers. This year, more than two dozen vendors will ply
their wares at the festival, including quilters, wood-
workers, jewelers, candlemakers, soapmakers and
bakers.
Blanak and Inchelium Red, two locally grown garlic
varieties, on display.
The Wild Locals, a regenerative vegetable and berry
orchard, will again off er a selection of garlic sauces,
pesto, dips and spreads along with fresh jun, a fermented
drink similar to kombucha. Elemental Acres, a small,
veteran-owned farm in Goble that focuses on humane-
ly-raised pork, beef, and chickens will be on hand, as
will Columbia Gourmet Mushrooms from Rainier.
More garlic can be found at the festival from Ian’s
Columbia Gorge Garlic, accompanied by apple cider
from Carola Wines. Tilthworks, of course, will be there
with garlic and produce as well as fresh artisan bread,
honey, and Breshears-Routon’s popular braided garlic
strands.
“We have a really good mix of everything, including
lots of music,” she said of the festival. “People really
put their heart and soul into it.”
M.J. Cody is a freelance contributor to Coast Week-
end and Our Coast Magazine.