Garlic & Gooseberries/Wednesday Wandering: Gilroy Garlic

by , under Garlic and Gooseberries, Thoughts on This and That, Wednesday Wanderings

When I was a child in California, my family often went camping. So many images are woven into the memories of those early days, our car pulling a trailer over miles of highways, the scent of pine trees in the campgrounds, the barren, dry hills of southern California. Somewhere in the basic vocabulary lessons of those years, I learned about Gilroy, the Garlic Capital of the World. Perhaps there are other places in the world that grow more or better garlic, but in my heart Gilroy will always be the capital.

On a recent trip to California, after a week of family togetherness and the momentous joy of attending my nephew’s wedding, my mother, my cousin and I took off on a road trip back in time. My parents always loved road trips, and for my 88-year old mother this was a chance to recapture the suspension of time and sense of adventure of those trips. We traveled the same highways and winding roads down the coast of California I remembered as a child. IMG_2565IMG_2561For every beach and town name on road signs my mother had a story to tell, a trip we had taken, a person who had lived there, a place we had camped. We stopped at 3 houses my family had lived in, including the first house my parents owned. I was born around the time they moved in there, and we stayed there 9 years. The names of my sister, brother and myself are still carved into the cement sidewalk outside.
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We found the house we had lived in for only 1 ½ years, where my mom found out she had breast cancer and we decided to move to Portugal, both events changing our lives forever. We stayed at a lodge in Big Sur where my cousin and I had camped with our families, the redwoods and scented air transporting us all to past camping adventures. My dad would have loved it all.IMG_2483

One of our first stops, before heading west to the coast was at the Garlic Shoppe in Gilroy, right off the freeway among miles of dry, flat fields of garlic. There we tasted garlic ice cream, which was surprisingly delicious despite repeating on us over the next several miles. I also bought a braided rope of 10 plump and pungent bulbs of garlic that accompanied me all the way back to Boston.Gilroy garlic

I separated two of those bulbs into about 30 cloves, and on an unusually warm October day I tucked them into the rich dirt of my garden, marking the rows with sticks. Infused and enriched as they are with all those good memories, they will hopefully grow big and strong by next summer.garlic cloves for planting

 

Garlic nestled in the dirt

  1. Eric

    Ellen,
    Thanks for this gift. I loved your comment that your dad would have loved it. With both my parents gone, your road trip with Henny allowed me a moment of inter generational camaraderie.

    Eric

    Reply
    • Ellen

      Thank you, Eric. I am so glad it was meaningful to you. The journey through time with my mom was really wondeful, and brought memories of my dad and our past to life. It is good to reconnect with the memories sometimes.

      Reply
  2. Lynne Ward

    at this time of our lives these family trips are priceless. No need to climb mountains or traverse raging rivers to energize body and soul…

    Reply
  3. Shirley Wolff

    Homage to Hen and to YOU for capturing the moments that meant so much to you both!! Love, Aunt Shirl

    Reply
  4. Henrietta Hall

    Dearest Ellen: I absolutely LOVED this piece. You captured the entire mood of the trip. It is beautiful and I love you for writing such a wonderful article about it.
    MOM

    Reply
    • Ellen

      Thanks Mom. It was such a great trip! Looking forward to sharing the garlic with you when it grows in my garden.

      Reply

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