The Big, The Small & The Ugly
Sponsored by Lucero Olive Oil
Information for 2013 will be here soon. It will be very much like last year, so check out the details below.
Contest Info:
Word Docs
PDFs
Blue ribbons, bragging rights and big garlic: the Minnesota Garlic Festival announces its first “Garlic Growers & Gardeners Contest: The Big, The Small and The Ugly” to be held during the festival at the McLeod County Fairgrounds in Hutchinson on August 11, 2012.
The contest will be open to all garlic grown in Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and Iowa.
There will be prizes for the biggest and smallest heads overall, and a prize for the biggest head in each of ten garlic categories:
- Artichoke
- Asiatic
- Creole
- Glazed Purple Stripe
- Marbled Purple Stripe
- Porcelain
- Purple Stripe
- Rocambole
- Silverskin
- Turban
Finally, there is a “Worst in Show” award for the ugliest garlic (must be disease-free and edible to be eligible).
Size will be determined by weight. Ugliness will be in the eyes of the judges.
There is no fee to participate, though you must bring your bulbs to the festival on August 11, 2012.
Here are tips from contest mastermind, Carol Schmidt, on how to get the BIGGEST bulbs:
- Select the largest cloves for planting.
- Plant them with plenty of room—at least 8 inches in all directions.
- Fertilize before planting, when the sprouts first appear in the spring and lightly every two weeks till about one month before harvest.
- Eliminate all weeds.
- Cut the scapes on hardneck varieties as soon as they appear.
And here’s Carol’s tips on how to get the SMALLEST heads:
- Dig a trench about four inches deep and six inches wide.
- Throw in willy-nilly all the smallest cloves you have, keeping them as close together as possible.
- Do not fertilize water or weed.
And, finally, here’s how to grow an UGLY bulb:
- See #1-3 under “smallest heads,” plus
- Play Barry Manilow Music to the plants 24/7 at 110 decibels.
