Virtual Tomato and Garlic Days runs from 8/24-8/27 benefits food bank

I helped found the Tomato and Garlic Festival at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens over a 15 years ago. It’s a way to help the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, but I never could have imagined all these years later we would be meeting virtually. Phipps has been a wonderful partner and has figured out a way to still hold this important event.

In the past gardeners brought their extra produce, donating it directly to the food bank. Over the years we’ve collected over 10 tons of fresh garden vegetables to help feed the hungry. This time around the festival will be spread over four days, each night from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. beginning on Monday August 24, 2020. This year there’s a flat $50 fee for all four days or $15 a day.

I’ll kick off Tomato and Garlic Days at 6 p.m. on Monday presenting “How to Get Five Harvests from Growing Your Own Garlic.” The lecture will explain how easy it is to plant garlic next month and detail the five harvests that only a garlic grower can enjoy. On Thursday I’ll cook two dishes live, each using 50 cloves of garlic! The first is “Garlic Elixir” and the second is “Ultimate Garlic Linguini.”

There are lots of other greet demonstrations which include cooking, garden workouts and more.

Here are all the details of the schedule and how to register. I hope you’ll join me in an effort to help the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

In the words of my great friend, Pittsburgh artist Johno Prascak, “It would be a sad world without garlic.”